Poor people can’t have anything
ASUU believes FG has a plan to ice out public universities financially
Good morning, Big Brains. We’re getting closer to salary day, and everything is starting to make sense again. Let the countdown begin!
- Margaret
Word count: ~ 1, 000
Reading time ~ 4 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
Nigeria’s new tax bill is not sweet on public universities
President Tinubu knows nothing about underpromising and overdelivering
The Big Deal
Nigeria’s new tax bill is not sweet on public universities
Put a finger down if you’ve ever seen a nice-looking building with “TETFUND” boldly written on it in any Nigerian public university. If you’ve seen one, good for you. If you haven’t, add it to your bucket list while you still can because the Nigeria Tax Bill is proposing to end the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) by 2030.
TETFund has been the fairy godmother of our public tertiary institutions since 1993. In its 32 years, it has funded the building of lecture halls, filled libraries with books, and funded research.
You’d think a fund like this would be getting an increased allocation, but Nigeria is an interesting country. The proposed tax bill plans to cut TETFund's share of the education tax to 50% in 2025 and 2026 before completely stopping all allocations by 2030.
According to ASUU’s Akure Zonal Chairman, Professor Adeola Egbedokun, the idea is to redirect these funds towards the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), focusing on student loans.
Egbedokun believes this sounds like a plan to force public universities to raise their fees. “The proposed shift in funding towards student loans may be a strategy to pressure public tertiary education institutions into implementing exorbitant tuition fees and potentially transforming them into revenue-generating entities,” he said.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has made it clear that this bill is ridiculous and shouldn’t live to see the light of the day.
Why is this a big deal?
With the federal government allocating only 7% of the 2025 budget to education—far below UNESCO's recommended 15-20%—relying solely on budget allocations without TETFund's support could leave our institutions high and dry.
For students, this could mean poorer infrastructure, fewer resources, and a shift towards student loans. Imagine graduating not just with a degree but also with a crippling debt to your name. God abeg!
Don’t quote us but Professor Egbedokun sort of makes a valid point in suggesting that the government’s sudden hype around student loans could be a plot to force public universities to increase their fees. It would be a shame if this turns out to be true, especially since over 129 million Nigerians currently live in poverty.
President Tinubu’s administration hasn’t been kind enough to poor citizens, but an increase in fees for public tertiary institutions could be the last straw that would send millions of Nigerians over the edge. What’s that thing they say about introducing a problem and pretending like it’s a solution? That’s exactly what is happening here.
Overall grade: 0/10 (Unnecessary, insensitive, and tone-deaf. Tinubu, see us in our office!). Just kidding, please. We’re not trying to get hit with that Cybercrime lawsuit.
President Tinubu knows nothing about underpromising and overdelivering
President Tinubu has big shoes to fill this year, but judging by the newly increased inflation rate, it would take a miracle to fill them. We were on our own when the President decided to make a very ambitious promise to reduce inflation down to 15%. Well, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased to 34.80% in December 2024, a 0.20% jump from November’s 34.60%.
If a 0.20% increase doesn’t sound that bad, wait till you hear that this is a 5.87% increase compared to December 2023. Remember when President Tinubu inherited a bad-but-not-that-bad inflation rate of 22.41% in May 2023? It’s interesting to know that we’ve found ourselves at 34.8% in less than two years.
It doesn’t help that food inflation has also climbed up to 39.84%, and as a result, yams, sweet potatoes, rice, beer and cereals have now chosen to remind average Nigerians that basic purchases are now strictly for the rich.
Even though Tinubu and two other Nigerians still believe in his 15% inflation rate promise, economists have already affirmed that it would be more realistic to believe that you stand a chance with Aaron Pierre all the way from your apartment in Ikorodu than to believe in the possibility of the inflation rate dropping that low in 2025. If anything, we’re getting closer to hitting 40%.
It’s a good thing Tinubu has a praying wife because he would need God’s intervention to fulfil his big promise.
This Week’s Big Question
“One-way ticket to Canada or 24 hours with Tinubu?”
Tosin’s response - “I’ll even take a one-way ticket to Angola and I won’t be explaining why”.
You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting Tosin’s, we’ll feature it in the next edition.
The Big Picks
Nigerian Lawmakers Want to Introduce Tougher Punishments Against Public Smoking: The NCC announced the suspension on Wednesday, January 15, but it is gracious about the possible suspension because it will not take effect until January 27.
Your USSD Transactions Might Stop Working, And These Banks Are To Blame: The NCC announced the suspension on Wednesday, January 15, but it is gracious about the possible suspension because it will not take effect until January 27.
Angola soft