The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has raised alarm over proposed tax reform bills currently being reviewed by the National Assembly, urging Nigerians to stand against them.
The union claims these bills threaten the survival of public education in Nigeria, particularly through the gradual dismantling of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
During a press conference, Monday Lewis-Igbafen, the Benin Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, expressed deep concerns about the proposed reforms.
“ASUU is alarmed by Section 59(3) of the Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024, which states that only 50 percent of the Development Levy would be made available to TETFund in 2025 while NITDA, NASENI, and NELFUND would share the remaining percentages.
The consequence of this section is that TETFund will receive 66 percent in 2027, 2028, and 2029 years of assessment and zero percent thereafter, especially from 2030,” he explained.
He emphasized that education is a public good and warned that these reforms would severely undermine Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
TETFund has long been a pillar of support for Nigerian tertiary institutions, driving infrastructure development, postgraduate training, and research initiatives. Lewis-Igbafen argued that phasing out TETFund would be disastrous for the sector.
“As a union of intellectuals, we vehemently reject this tax reform bill, especially for its attempt to erode the concrete relevance of TETFund to the infrastructural development, postgraduate training, and research capacity building in Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions,” he said.
ASUU is calling on Nigerians to resist these reforms, which they describe as a “death sentence” for public tertiary education.
“We are calling for mass resistance against this potent threat to the life-wire of tertiary education in our country because the impending abrogation of TETFund will take public tertiary education many years back and undermine the modest gains in repositioning Nigerian universities for global reckoning and transformative development,” Lewis-Igbafen stated.
ASUU’s position is clear: the proposed tax reforms must be stopped to preserve the future of public education in Nigeria.
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