Dont recommends special tax for graduates

The Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the University of West England, Bristol, United Kingdom, Prof. Paul Olomolaiye, says the Nigerian system of taxation should be readjusted such that employed graduates and non-graduates would pay separate kinds of taxes.

Olomolaiye said it would be unfair for employed non-graduates to pay tax that would be used in developing universities which they never attended.

He said, however, that graduates paying a two to three per cent additional tax that would be used in developing universities was equitable as it would be a way of giving back to the system.

The professor of Construction Engineering said this during a public lecture organised by the Department of Economics at the University of Lagos, Akoka on Thursday.

At the event themed, The Economics of Publication in Nigeria: The Way Forward, Olomolaiye added that there was need for students to be granted loans as being practised in developed countries.

He said, “ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) protested against the government for seven months last year after fighting that the percentage of the GDP being spent on higher education is simply too small and is crippling public universities.

“I agree with all of this but I think the simple fact is that the current funding system is fundamentally flawed as it has no provision that those benefitting from being graduates are really paying back their dues and not cheating the 80 per cent of the population who did not attend higher institutions and are paying for what we have all benefitted from through taxes.

“Those who have benefitted should put something back for the university education financial equilibrium to be maintained.

“My guess is that there will be a 200 per cent difference in the earnings of Nigerian graduates and non-graduates. A two to three per cent graduate tax will raise significant sums for the Nigerian university sector and ensure that a carpenter’s tax is not used to fund public universities in which not only has he not benefitted from but has possibly been severely disadvantaged.”

Also speaking, the Vice Chancellor of UNILAG, Prof Rahmon Bello, said insecurity in the nation was being fuelled by the Almajiri system of education in the northern part of the country.

He added that the government had failed to set out specific goals it wanted the educational system to achieve.

He said, “There is an urgent need to develop an effective and efficient public education system that will push out the best results in our graduates of secondary and tertiary institutions with respect to skill acquisition, communication skill, creativity and entrepreneurship thereby launching Nigeria into the 21st century.”

The Head of the Economics Department, Prof. Ndubuisi Nwokoma, noted that there was a correlation between economics and the quality of education. He said if the universities and the government could address the issue of funding, the standard of education would improve.