The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has described the Federal Government’s plan of automatic deduction from the Internally Generated Revenue of universities in the country as an attack on the university system.
Recall that the FG, in a letter dated October 17, 2023, and titled ‘Implementation of 40% automatic deduction from internally generated revenue of partially-funded Federal Government institutions,’ said it would begin the deduction with effect from November 2023.
The letter signed by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin Madein, Director of Revenue and Investment, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Felix Ore-ofe Ogundairo, also said the auto-deduction policy of gross IGR was in line with the Finance Circular with reference number FMFBNP/OTHERS/IGR/CRF/12/2021 dated December 20, 2021.
The National President, ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, while speaking on the issue, stated that the universities are not revenue-generating agencies and described as disheartening government insistence of the 40 percent deduction.
“Universities are not revenue-generating agencies, so the 40 percent of the subsidized money students pay for a hostel, medicals, ID cards, lab coat, chemicals in the laboratory should still be shared with the government?
“This is extreme, such is happening in Nigeria.. Will the Presidency ask the NASS, NNPC, to give a return of 40 per cent?” he queried?
He stated that the union had seen through the government’s plan which was the reason it was insisting that the government should fund universities.
He lamented that Nigerians had thought that ASUU was the problem.
Osodeke, who stated that ASUU will meet with the government to discuss the issue and know the way forward, called for support from parents, students and Nigerians to speak against the government’s ‘attack against the universities’.
“This is an attack on universities. Universities are already paying taxes. They pay withholding taxes and it goes to the government. There is nothing like IGR in universities. What we have are charges.
“We need to know the 40 percent of what they want to collect from universities. They are even saying lecturers should pay them accommodation fees too. They want 100 percent of what they pay as accommodation. It is sad. Give us some time to interact with the government,” he said.
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