Employed Graduates Should Pay For Universities Dev — Don

Prof. Paul Olomolaiye

 (Covenant University)

A UK based don, Prof. Paul Olomolaiye, has advised the Nigerian government to make employed graduates pay extra tax as a way of "paying back their dues" to the system that created them.

Delivering a lecture a public lecture on the them, ‘The Economics of Publication in Nigeria at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), last Thursday, Olomolaiye said the current taxation system is not fair to non-graduates.

The Professor of Construction Engineering agreed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) thatb  the "percentage of the GDP being spent on higher education is simply too small and is crippling public universities" but argued that asking non graduates to contribute to the development of universities that they never benefited from is unfair.

"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 benefiting 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 benefited from through taxes,"  the professor said according to a Daily Post report.

"My guess is that there will be a 200 per cent difference in the earnings of Nigerian graduates and non-graduates."

To remove the imbalance, the Professor suggested an extra 2-3% tax that only employed graduates will pay as a way of paying back their dues to the system.

"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 benefited from but has possibly been severely disadvantaged."

The don however added that the government should also provide loans for students.

Prof. Olomolaiye is the Executive Dean of the University of West England, Bristol, United Kingdom.

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