LP Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi Praised FG Upon Reversion Of 40% IGR Deduction Policy

Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 presidential election, has expressed his appreciation for the decision of the federal government to reverse its earlier policy of deducting 40% of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of universities.

The Federal Government had recently suspended this automatic deduction following mounting pressure.

The reversal order was given by President Bola Tinubu during the 75th Founder’s Day ceremony at the University of Ibadan (UI).

“The 40 per cent IGR automatic deduction policy stands cancelled. This is not the best time for such policy since our universities are struggling,” he declared.

In response, Mr. Obi took to his social media platform to commend the government and also called for the prompt reorganization and revitalization of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

“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,” Obi said.

“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,” He concluded.