Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi has said that the reversal of 40% Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from Nigerian Universities by the Federal Government is gratifying.
Mr. Obi made the statement on his X account, formerly Twitter on Friday (today).
President Bola Ahmed had earlier in the day put a stop to the development, however, Obi termed the initial demand as ‘totally inconceivable’.
He said: “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.”
The former Governor of Anambra State also advised the Federal Government to revamp the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), thereby improving the funding of State and Federal varsities.
“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.”
He further stated that the time has come for the government to pay more attention to the financial autonomy of public universities in Nigeria.
Similarly, he admonished the government to fulfill its statutory financial responsibility to public tertiary education in the country.
