ASUU Warns Against Scrapping TETFund, Urges Nigerians to Reject 2024 Tax Bill

By Emmanuel Kwada

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has sounded the alarm over the proposed Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, which is currently before the National Assembly. The bill seeks to abolish the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), a move that ASUU warns would have devastating consequences for public universities, reducing them to glorified secondary schools.

According to ASUU, the bill’s proposal to divert TETFund’s statutory funds to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is illogical and anti-education.

ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, described the proposal as “dangerous and unpatriotic,” stating that it undermines decades of progress in public tertiary education. “TETFund has been the backbone of infrastructural development, postgraduate training, and research capacity building in Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions. Replacing it with NELFUND is comparable to killing a parent to keep a newborn child alive,” he said.

TETFund has been the backbone of infrastructural development, postgraduate training, and research capacity building in Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions

ASUU highlighted TETFund’s crucial role in infrastructure development, capacity building, and research, and called on lawmakers, state governors, and all Nigerians to oppose the bill and safeguard the future of tertiary education in the country.

The union noted that TETFund has had a significant impact on the development of public tertiary institutions in Nigeria, and that its abolition would take the country’s education system several years backward.

ASUU also pointed out that the proposed bill is illegal, as it seeks to reallocate TETFund’s statutory funds to an agency not covered by the TETFund Act of 2011. The union urged the National Assembly to reject the bill and protect TETFund, which has been a positive testament to ASUU’s constructive engagements with Nigerian governments since 1992. ASUU’s warning is a call to action for all Nigerians to reject the 2024 Tax Bill and safeguard the future of tertiary education in the country.