The third-placed candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, has expressed satisfaction that the Federal Government has reversed its demand for 40 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenue of universities.
The policy was cancelled by President Bola Tinubu who said the move was inappropriate at the period.
Reacting, Obi stated that the “demand underlines a lack of attention to the persistent abuse of the TetFund, which is presently not being properly utilised to fund tertiary education as initially envisaged”.
He shared on X, “It is gratifying that the FGN has reversed its demand on the 40% IGR from universities. It is ab initio totally inconceivable that grossly underfunded universities would be expected to dole out 40% of their IGR to the FGN.
“Moreover, that demand underlines a lack of attention to the persistent abuse of the TetFund, which is presently not being properly utilised to fund tertiary education as initially envisaged.
“In fact, FGN should promptly reorganise and revamp TetFund, to fulfil its statutory role of funding Nigerian public universities both Federal and State owned, and also in assisting those owned by voluntary agencies.
“The time has come for the government to pay more attention to the financial autonomy of our public universities while fulfilling its statutory financial responsibility to our public tertiary education. -PO”
