Northern Students Reject Tax Reform Bills

The Coalition of Northern Groups CNG (Students Wing) has called on the federal government to discontinue the tax reform process in the interest of Nigerian students and allow for holistic consultations and amendments before its legislation.

The students also called on all patriotic legislators and well-meaning Nigerians to carefully study the Bill with keen interest and ensure justice for their educational institutions and Nigerian students.

Students, at a press conference in Bauchi on Monday, said that they had critically studied and analysed the disbursement statistics released by the National Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) across tertiary institutions in the Northern region.

The statement explained that the groups, as vanguards of the Federal Government Students Loan Scheme, who sensitised all stakeholders on the matter, have critically studied and analysed the disbursement statistics released by the National Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) across tertiary institutions in the Northern region.

“From the disbursement statistics, over 82,953 students across 45 institutions benefited from the region. It is imperative to clarify that out of the 234 Federal and State tertiary institutions cleared by NELFUND for the first phase, only 96 were from the north, with 51 tertiary institutions yet to receive disbursement.”

The statement signed by the CNG-SW National Coordinator, Hassan Adamu, noted a deliberate attempt to narrow the NELFUND coverage in the Northern region as the total number of Federal and State tertiary institutions in the area is more than 96. In Zamfara state, for instance, only 4 out of 10 public tertiary institutions were covered, Sokoto only 4, Kano only 4, and so on.

“Priority was also given to federal institutions with few state-owned Tertiary institutions taking advantage of the Student Loan Scheme to increase tuition fees for the 2024/2025 session will abuse the scheme”, Adamu said.

The national coordinator explained that the hike in tuition fees, given the current economic reality, would be a catastrophe for students. The scheme would be perceived as another form of extortion, with delayed refunds giving unpatriotic public servants room to embezzle the money.

“The pressure of tuition fees payment deadline usually issued by many tertiary institutions have led to the withdrawal of indigent students, missing of academic activities such as examinations in some cases leading to poor academic performance or total forfeiture of their academic pursuit which has led to the increasing number of drop out in northern institutions to up to 60 per cent”.

“Based on the above statistics of only less than 300,000 students out of over 40,000,000 students benefited from the loan, it proves to us beyond any iota of doubt that either the program is targeting reducing the number of Nigerian Students in our higher institutions or the loan is unrealistic, unsustainable and gimmick, aimed at bastardising our educational institutions”.

The Coalition, therefore, rejected the proposed Tax Reform Bill in totality, arguing that it is designed by the enemies of the state to undermine our already paralysed educational sector. The bill stresses that it is intended to undermine existing northern educational institutions and ensure that anything good in the industry becomes history, which the students vehemently resist.

Mr Hassan Adamu further explained that the reform would deteriorate critical institutions that support educational development in the country. Hence, the reform bill is a deliberate attempt to attack critical national institutions in northern tertiary institutions responsible for providing basic infrastructure to ensure they become mortuaries.

He warned that Nigerian students would not tolerate any attempt by authorities to scrap or underfund TETFUND and called on NELFUND to expand its coverage, as there are more than 96 federal and state tertiary institutions in the region, to ensure access for all students.

“NELFUND should ensure early disbursement to institutions to avoid pressure on the beneficiary by management. Tertiary institutions are advised to refund beneficiaries their tuition fees in full. When the institution wishes to repay the instalment/percentage, the beneficiaries should be informed of the reason.

“Tertiary institutions should drop any agenda for incrementing tuition fees, as the CNG-SW will not tolerate a tuition hike. Tertiary institutions should also desist from setting a deadline for beneficiaries to pay off their tuition fees since NELFUND has committed and commenced disbursement.”