The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), Professor Suleiman Bogoro has commended the management of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for the increased remittance of Education tax to the fund.

Bogoro gave the commendation when he led the management team of TETfund in an appreciation visit to FIRS said it is always good to honour those who deserve honour.

“It is good to acknowledge the goose that lay the golden egg as we are very comfortable in this house. Each time we meet in FIRS this is what we tell ourselves. This is because we witnessed about the highest jump in the collection of the FIRS collection of two percent of Education tax fund”, he said.

The management of TETfund and the Board of trustees are very excited and we have agreed that I should lead the management team to come and formally expressed our appreciation”.

“We are veritable partners in executing our mandate of applying the two percent education tax which came to be in 1993 but the funds were applied in 1999 to 2010 under ETF. In 2011 it was refocused to the original concept of TETfund replacing ETF and the focus was very direct and that is for public tertiary institution specifically, federal and state universities, polytechnics and colleges of Education”.

According to him, from 2011 when TETfund takes place, it was just by halfway along the lines and that within that period, it has demonstrated a collection of 81 percent and that means it is more effective when it became TETfund, so  it necessary to come and appreciate the FIRS for the great job they are doing for the country,

More importantly, we always have a number of interactive forums. For instance, we have a joint interactive forum annually and through it, we have privilege of having a report from FIRS and we also show them precisely what we have been doing with the money and we also have tax payers forum where we have an opportunity to appreciate those that pay the tax that the FIRS collect and remit to us and of course we also have annual tax reconciliation exercise which is about to commence”

“We noticed that the Federal Ministry of Education had already proposed that the tax should be raised from two to three percent and the process, of course, was led by the federal ministry of education and not by TETfund “.

“We sought the cooperation of the FIRS and they have always assured us, precisely since the arrival of the present chairman, he did promise that there will be a different and we have seen a difference and we said it is right to come and appreciate him and we are looking forward to exploring more avenues of increasing more collections of taxes”, he added.

“We have ensured in TETfund that we are responsible in applying the two percent the money you collect with the sense of responsibility and that is why we can say without fear of contradiction that Nigerians acknowledged what we are doing with the money you collect with the sense of responsibility that the impact is manifested”

“We are determined to sustain and enhance performance in applying that money you collect and send to us. For the first time the University of Ibadan was ranked among the best 500 universities in the world and each time we met, the Vice-Chancellor did confess that it wouldn’t have been made possible without the intervention of TETfund”.

In his response, the Chairman, FIRS, Muhammed Mamman acknowledged the commendation and stated that the TETfund appreciation was a call to do more for the country and gave the assurance that, they will do so.

According to him, FIRS achieved the fit because of the commitment on the part of taxpayers and the collaboration they have had with the agencies of government like TETfund in ensuring timely remittance of taxes and aggressive tax audit embarked upon by his colleagues and also the tax investigation that was carried out.

“Credit shouldn’t come to us, but to the taxpayers, particularly the agent of transportation and we called for their continued support if possible do more because we do know that there is more money in their hands that if remitted will help in the repositioning of the education sector for a better service to Nigerians and also to assure you that this we did, we operated in a very difficult terrain last year”.

“The challenges we have for this year is enormous. The fact is that companies last year passed through difficult times and we don’t expect them to turn in a good result. We are not anticipating getting positive returns from them this year because of the 2020 lockdown”.

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The former Chief of Army Staff and the 20th General to lead the Nigeria Army, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai has stated that he left the Nigerian  army better than he met.

General Buratai (retired) stated this on Friday, 29th January in his firewall speech at his pulling out parade which took place at the Mogadishu Barracks, Abuja.

The Former Army Chief said the Nigerian army under his leadership was able to achieve great feats in the fight against insurgency in the country and no part of Nigeria is ceded to any terrorist group or criminals.

“The counter insurgency operation is a warfare that is new to the Nigerian army, but over tome ww have continue to improve and device means of tackling the ever evolving dynamic nature of the threats in the country “

“The Nigerian army has remained resolute in the discharge of its role as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I urge you all to continue to rise to the occasion” said Buratai.

General Buratai therefore urged the new chief of army staff to maintain the momentum and the pressure to rid the country of the last visages of the terrorist in the North East while applauding the immense role the governor of Borno State,  professor Babagana Zullum played in the fight against insurgency.

“He came with a unique leadership, i can assure you collectively that the Nigerian army and the Borno state government will end this insurgency in the shortest possible time”

“The remaining enclaves has already been entered by our troops, they are in the process of evicting them and dealing with them decisively, i want to urge the chief of army staff to maintain the momentum and the pressure to rid these last visages of the terrorist in the North East” stated former COAS.

Also at the Occasion, the Minister of Defence, Retired General Bashir Magashi who was the special Quest of Honour, led the launching of a Book  titled, “The Legend of Buratai volume 2” which consist of 125 pages and 9 chapters

The Defence minisiter who described Buratai as a seasoned General, also said General Buratai is not only an outstanding and accomplished General, but also a renowned author.

General Buratai has served for fourty years in the Nigerian army and sixty six months as the Chief of Army Staff.

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The Vice-Chancellor, Veritas University, Abuja, Prof. Hyacinth Ichoku, has called for data subsidy for students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria to address specific challenges limiting online teaching amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Vice-Chancellor made the call while briefing journalists on activities lined up for the University’s ninth convocation ceremony scheduled to take place on the 30th of January.

He further stated that the government must be determined to tackle the problem of the dearth of infrastructure in the sub-Tertiary education sector.

According to him, “We need a lot of development in ICT infrastructure. The committee of Vice-chancellors had in November last year sent some delegates to the Ministry of Communication to negotiate for low-cost data for students. I am sure that if the government is able to subsidise data for students and universities, it will go a long way in assisting online education in Nigeria“

Speaking on the 9th convocation ceremony of the university, Prof. Ichoku stated that the university will award first-class certificates to 32 graduands among the 421 who have completed their course of studies and met all necessary requirements.

Ichoku noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed teaching and learning as universities around the world have had to migrate from face-to-face engagements to online learning.

He further explained that online learning has been challenging in Nigeria due to shortage of Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and high cost of data.

“This is a new experience for most schools in Nigeria. We found ourselves doing things we were supposed to do in the next five years. This young generation have the potentials to adapt except that we lack the facilities for them to excel”

“The difficulty we have is in terms of the cost of data for parents who have to pay extra and students who have limited resources to buy data or computers. It is particularly more visible in the public universities. There, you have a lot of students who are sponsoring themselves through school unlike in the private institutions where people who send their kids there are mostly middle class,” he said.

He said the convocation which would be attended both virtually and physically would hold in strict compliance with COVID-19 guidelines as established by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)

While explaining some projects being undertaken by the university, the VC said construction of new hostels and shopping mall were on to cater for the needs of students.

Ichaku said staff of the institution were paid full salary during the lockdown in 2020, noting that the gesture was a big motivation for them to perform their duties at the period.

He observed that enrolment of students into the university had increased tremendously as over 1000 students have already been admitted into its 100 level programmes.

“It is a tough and turbulent academic session for us. But we have managed to put through because we quickly migrated online after the government shut down schools. We were online until we finished our second semester in August. Our saving grace was that we have a robust ICT unit”, he stated.

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