BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities have decried rising inflation which they said has negatively affected their maintenance of hostels, lecture theatres, offices and other logistics.
These complaints were on the heels of the decision of the Federal Government to automatically deduct 40 percent of revenue generated internally by public universities and other partially-funded institutions across the country.
Before President Bola Tinubu announced the cancellation of the planned deductions, a letter to the universities dated October 17, 2023, by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Madein, titled: ‘Implementation of 40 per cent automatic deduction from internally generated revenue of partially-funded Federal Government institutions,’ and signed by Director of Revenue and Investment, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Felix Ore-ofe Ogundairo, had caused controversy between managers of ivory towers and the government.
Addressed to heads of universities, the letter had announced that effective this November, universities will have 40 percent of revenues generated internally, and deposited in their accounts, deducted automatically by the government via the Treasury Single Accounts.
This development came as Nigeria’s allocation to the education sector has been short of the recommended benchmark of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
UNESCO asked its member nations to earmark four to six per cent of their Gross Domestic Product or 15 to 20 per cent of annual budget to fund education.
According to data released by Macro Trends, Nigeria’s education spending has been in the single digit in the last 13 years. A look into 2010, 2011 and 2012 budgetary provisions for education showed that 6.17 per cent, 7.88 per cent and 8.55 per cent went to the sector respectively.
In the same vein, 2013, 2014, 2015 got 8.68, 9.04 and 9.26 per cent budgetary allocations.
In 2016, 2017 and 2018, education received 7.9, 6.1 and 7.1 per cent of the respective years’ budgets. This rose to 8.4 per cent in 2019, plummeted to 6.5 per cent, 5.7 per cent and 5.4 per cent in 2020, 2021 and 2022, before soaring to 8.2 per cent in 2023.
The figures are a sharp contrast to what obtains in other parts of Africa.
In 2022 for instance, while South Africa education spending was 19.75 per cent – a 1.33 per cent increase from 2021; Namibia spent 24.71 and 27.3 per cent in the sector for 2022 and 2023, respectively, even as Algeria recorded double digits for nine consecutive years, between 2013 and 2022.
Stakeholders had expressed worry that the Federal Government was planning to tax the university system that has been bedeviled with inadequate funding, non-payment of outstanding salaries, poor infrastructure and lack of motivation which have forced about 50 percent of lecturers to seek greener pastures abroad, while 80 per cent of those remaining are preparing to leave the university system that has recorded no fewer than sixteen strikes in the last twenty years.
Meanwhile, some Vice-Chancellors of universities, in their separate interviews said aside from the fact that the policy would leave the academia worse off, parents would have to pay up to 140 percent increase in school fees for the management to be able to run the schools effectively if the deduction had not been cancelled.
According to the Vice-Chancellor of the Osun State University, Prof. Odunayo Clement Adebooye, it is “irresponsible and counter-productive” for the Federal Government to take from universities that are already battling infrastructural decay, adding that cost of maintaining universities had been on the rise.
The Professor of Plant Physiology and Food Chemistry said, “How did we get here that the government will be thinking of taxing the university system? It is irresponsible and counter-productive. When we should be discussing the difficulty VCs and other management members are facing in running universities, it is unfortunate that the Federal Government thought of taking from us.”
Countering arguments that universities generate income, he explained that, “It is a wrong notion that universities generate income. We only collect charges that I call end users from students in order to be able to provide facilities for them and maintain them.”
“If parents have agreed to pay fees fully, then universities can charge economic fees. This is when the government can take taxes. Universities are not to fund government budgets. It is wrong,” the don posited.
On how universities could prove to government and other stakeholders that they are not generating so much money that the government could cut from, Adebooye stated that, “We (VCs) have to introduce more transparency into the management of universities so that the people will know what we are passing through.”
“The Federal Government ran NEPA, it failed, it ran Water Corporation, it failed, and it ran hospitals, failure. The same government ran NITEL, Post Office, railway and failed. How can a government that can’t run business effectively now expect the universities to make so much money?” Adebooye asked rhetorically.
He added, “The Federal Government should let the university loose, let them calculate how much is required to fund their (universities) budget, let the government take up the bills and if they can’t, let the government allow the university management to charge the students. The universities are dying and taking from them will further destroy them.”
In her remarks, a former VC of Tai Solarin University of Education, Prof. Yemisi Obilade, pointed out that VCs pay so much in sustaining electricity, water and other resources on campuses, stressing that maintaining facilities and sustaining provision of basic amenities have been tasking with rising inflation.
Noting that the remaining 60 percent would not be enough to run universities, Obilade said, “Does the government have the idea of the shortage of gaps that exist in the university system? In the maintenance of the lecture hall? Let’s take accommodation for instance, do they understand what it takes to get water and light into the hostel and sustain them? Universities pay over N17 million monthly to ensure constant electricity.
“Are they saying that the management should add the 40 percent to the school fees of the students? They should come and tell Nigerians that the students should pay more. VCs are becoming endangered species. This is something that could precipitate an unimaginable crisis in the school system and also increase the pressure on the Vice-Chancellors. I don’t think it is fair on Vice Chancellors to put them in such a difficult position. These children (students) are not going to go to Abuja to go and protest, they are going to go to the streets and roads and then somebody in Abuja will be calling the Vice Chancellor to call the students to order.
“They can look for money elsewhere and not from the system that is already bleeding. People in government should send their children to school in Nigeria. They think that VCs are sitting on huge money. 60 percent is not enough to keep the school running. Parents should resist this policy or be ready to pay more,” said the Professor of Adult Education and Women Studies.
President Tinubu had cancelled the controversial deduction of 40 per cent of internally generated revenue from federal universities across the country.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, spoke on Friday at the 75th Founder’s Day ceremony of the University of Ibadan and described the policy implementation as “ill-timed”.
He also maintained that it was not the best time for such a policy since the universities were struggling.
In his speech as a Visitor to the university, Tinubu pledged his commitment to the reform of the nation’s education sector as the bedrock for national development.
He said, “The 40 per cent IGR automatic deduction policy stands cancelled. This is not the best time for such a policy since our universities are struggling.”
The Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities had written a protest letter to the Federal Government, demanding that the government rescind the plan to deduct 40 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenues of federal universities.
The Secretary-General Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, said the government could not be demanding 40 per cent of varsities IGR when it had refused to grant them autonomy.
Ochefu said that should the Federal Government spurn the plea by the VCs and go ahead with the policy, parents would bear the consequences.
