Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other stakeholders on Monday expressed stiff opposition against the passage of a bill which seeks to include private universities as beneficiaries of the intervention fund.
Representatives of the regulatory agency and the Unions who expressed the concerns during the public hearing on the ongoing amendment to the TetFund Act, held at the instance of the House Committee on Tertiary Education urged that status quo should be maintained in order to avoid corruption.
In his remarks, Abdullahi Baffa, TetFund Executive Secretary who led the campaign against the inclusion of private universities as beneficiaries of the Fund, said: “the promoters of this bill are not here to present their position, and I believe this is the first reason to reject the amendment.
“If private universities will resort to government for funding, it then means their licence should be withdrawn because they can’t stand on their own.
“Admissibility of tertiary teaching hospitals, private universities and colleges of agriculture will mean the drop in the world ranking of most Nigerian institutions that are already lagging behind.
“It will lead to the agitation by other members of the monotechnic family that were hitherto excluded from TetFund beneficiaries to be captured in TetFund beneficiary institutions list.
“In view of the foregoing submissions, our humble prayers are that the existing TetFund Act should be allowed to remain and operate as it is currently in order to sustain the visible impact of the fund on
public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
“The House of Representatives should discourage any amendment to the TETFund Act 2011 which would put more pressure on the Fund by expanding the list of beneficiaries of the fund,” the TetFund accounting officer urged.
Also speaking, ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, kicked against inclusion of private universities as well as Teaching Hospitals into Tetfund.
He however noted that the Teaching Hospitals will benefit from the one percent of the N1 2018 budget to health sector that should be enough for them.
“Inclusion of federal teaching hospitals will make the intervention of Tetfund ineffective. The impact of Tetfund will be drastically reduce. Private universities should contribute not to be collecting from Tetfund. They are charging and making profit.”
Other stakeholders such as the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), the ‘Say No Campaign,’ among others all opposed the proposed amendment.
In his submission, Ezenwa Nwagwu who spoke on behalf of ‘Say no Campaign Nigeria, warned that the extension of TetFund grant to Federal Teaching Hospitals will frustrate the objectives of the scheme.
“For everytime you see all kinds of intrusion, it will simply mess up TetFund because the agency is helping education.
“If we open floodgate, we are going to be promoting corruption within NUC, people in NUC will make it easy to create University in order to access the fund. We should leave Tetfund the way it is,” he canvassed.
On his part, Biodun Ogunyemi, President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) kicked against the inclusion of Teaching Hospitals into Tetfund.
He expressed optimism that the one percent of the N9.120 trillion 2018 budget allocation to health sector will also be extended to them.
Ogunyemi argued that the inclusion of Federal Teaching Hospital will make the intervention of Tetfund ineffective.
“The impact of Tetfund will be drastically reduce. It will reduce effective beneficiaries of the fund. It could trigger abuse, it will bring about floodgate, we should keep it like that for now. The mandate of teaching hospital fall under Ministry of Health so the ministry should continue to fund it.”
Going forward, he canvassed that private universities should contribute into the Fund but not to be collecting from Tetfund since they are profit-making ventures.
In his presentation, Nuhu Ogirima, President of College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) who aligned with ASUU, vowed that all the Unions will “embark on protest if the request is granted.
“The time is not ripe for such amendment. We should even strengthen their resource base,” Ogirima noted.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
