Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Sokoto Zone has appealed to the National Assembly to jettison the proposed Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, which tends to put an end to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
According to the union, the bill proposes to allocate only 50% of the Development Levy to TETFUND in 2025 and 2026, with the remaining percentage shared among NITDA, NASENI, and NELFUND. Furthermore, TETFUND is scheduled to receive zero funding from the Development Levy starting in 2030.
Addressing journalists at a press conference in Sokoto on Wednesday, the union’s Zonal Coordinator, Abubakar Sabo, said the development is detrimental to the national development aspirations of TETFUND’s existence.
He said that the implementation of the tax reform, if enacted, would affect infrastructural development, postgraduate training, and research capacity enhancement in public tertiary institutions.
ASUU said that TETFUND’s impact on higher education institutions is immeasurable, and abolishing it would set back public tertiary education by several years.
The Zonal Coordinator also added that TETFUND supports 244 public tertiary institutions, comprising 96 universities, 72 polytechnics, and 76 colleges of education.
Sabo stressed that the union is taking a firm stand against the degradation or eradication of TETFUND and urged the National Assembly to safeguard the fund from being abolished under the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024.
ASUU also tasked Nigerians to hold the government accountable for any consequences arising from the neglect of university education and the shabby treatment of academic staff.