The FG's proposal, outlined in a letter dated October 17, 2023, and titled 'Implementation of 40% automatic deduction from internally generated revenue of partially-funded Federal Government institutions,' is set to take effect from November 2023.
According to the letter signed by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Madein, and Director of Revenue and Investment, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Felix Ore-ofe Ogundairo, this policy aligns with a Finance Circular dated December 20, 2021.
ASUU's National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, expressed disappointment with the FG's decision, arguing that universities do not generate revenue from the user charges or service fees imposed on students. He found it perplexing that the government sought to collect from subsidized charges related to ID cards, hostel accommodation, lab coats, and other student services.
He said, “This is what we saw when we were fighting that the government should fund universities and Nigerians think ASUU is the problem.
“Universities are not revenue-generating agencies, so the 40 per cent of the subsidised money students pay for a hostel, medicals, ID cards, lab coat, chemicals in the laboratory should still be shared with the government?
“This is an extreme, that such is happening in Nigeria.. Will the Presidency ask the NASS, NNPC, to give a return of 40 per cent?”
Osodeke called on parents, students and Nigerians as a whole to rise against what he described as an attack against the universities, adding that ASUU would also meet with the Federal Government agencies in charge of the policy to take the next line of action.
He said, “Parents, students, Nigerians need to rise up to this. This is an attack on universities. Universities are already paying taxes. They pay withholding taxes and it goes to government. There is nothing like IGR in universities. What we have are charges.
