President of the Senate, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan
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UBEC, TETFund to fund rehabilitated insurgents’ agency
Eniola Akinkuotu, Olaleye Aluko and Wale Oyewale
The proposed National Agency for the
Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of
Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria’ will get its funding from the Universal
Basic Education Commission and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, The PUNCH reports.
Other sources of funding include-
donations, grants, annual subventions from the government and
counterpart funding from the six North-East states of Borno, Bauchi,
Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba and Gombe.
The details are included in the bill which was obtained by The PUNCH on Thursday.
The controversial bill, which is
officially known as ‘A Bill for the Establishment of the National Agency
for the Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of
Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria and for Other Connected Purposes’,
passed the first reading in the Senate on Thursday last week.
But few hours after the bill, which was
sponsored by Senator representing Yobe East, Ibrahim Geideam, passed
the first reading, it attracted angry reactions from the Chibok
Community, which was attacked by the insurgents in 2014, and the
Christian Association of Nigeria.
Also, the #BringBackOurGirls movement,
which has been calling for the release of schoolgirls abducted from
Chibok in 2014 by the insurgents, said the plan to set up the agency
should be done concurrently with the rehabilitation of thousands of
internally displaced persons.
But on Monday, Geidam, in an interview
with journalists, defended the bill. He said many Boko Haram terrorists
were willing to lay down their arms but were afraid of the consequences
of their action.
The senator explained that his bill was
not meant to take care of insurgents captured by the security agencies
because those ones would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
Barely two days after the senator
defended the controversial bill, 25 Boko Haram members and their wives,
who surrendered to troops in Niger Republic, arrived in Maiduguri, the
Borno State capital, on Wednesday.
A copy of the bill on the agency for
Boko Haram repentant terrorists, obtained by our correspondent, states
that one per cent of TETFund and UBEC fund will be used in funding the
agency for rehabilitating the terrorists.
The agency will also be funded by 0.5 per cent of the federal allocation of the six North-East states.
The PUNCH reports that TETFund
obtains its funding from a compulsory two per cent profit tax that is
paid by all registered companies to the Federal Government.
Section 10 of the controversial bill
reads in part, “The agency shall establish and maintain a fund which
will consist of initial take-off grant from the Federal Government;
annual subvention from the government; states counterpart funding which
will be deducted at source at 0.5 per cent of their statutory
allocation; 1 per cent of the Education Tax Fund (TETFund) and UBEC
fund.
According to the proposed law, the
agency will also be funded by grants in aid, gift, testamentary
dispositions, endowments and donations.
The bill states that the proposed agency
shall have a governing board which shall consist of the chairman who is
to be appointed by the President in consultation with the National
Assembly.
The governing council will also have one
representative from each of the North-East states, one representative
each of the stakeholders, three representatives of the impacted
communities, one person from the Nigerian Army, air force, navy, police
and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, all of whom must not be
below the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The council will also include one
representative each from the federal ministries of humanitarian affairs,
finance, environment, petroleum resources, North-East Development
Commission and the Local Content Board.
As regards the powers of the proposed
agency, the bill gives repentant terrorists the opportunity of receiving
foreign education.
Section 5(m) reads in part, “(The agency
shall) implement programmes geared towards the rehabilitation of
beneficiaries, engage the services of offshore and Nigerian institutions
in the pursuit of the educational needs of ex-agitators.”
The proposed agency is expected to
implement a comprehensive programme in the area of disarmament,
demobilisation, rehabilitation and reintegration.
It will also coordinate efforts of
relevant agencies, organisations and institutions towards the attainment
of set objectives as regards job placement, internship and sustainable
reintegration.
CACOL knocks FG, says education sector already underfunded
A civil society organisation, Centre for
Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, knocked the Federal Government
over its plans to deduct from TETFund and UBEC’s funds for the
rehabilitation of the Boko Haram terrorists.
The CACOL Director, Mr Debo Adeniran,
said the education sector was already underfunded and the Federal
Government must rather seek ways to increase funding and not deduct for
the terrorists’ rehabilitation.
He said, “I will say straightaway that
it is not right and it will be criminal if anyone dips his hands into
education funds of whatever description to fund the rehabilitation of
the Boko Haram.”
Proposal unfair, says MDCAN chairman
The Chairman, Medical and Dental
Consultants’ Association of Nigeria, University College Hospital,
University of Ibadan branch, Dr. Dare Olulana, in an interview with The PUNCH, said should not use part of TETFund for the agency.
Olulana, who recalled that the Academic
Staff Union of Universities had toiled and suffered by engaging in
protests and strike actions before TETFund was approved, said it would
be unfair and gross misplacement of priority for the current
administration to divert the money meant for the funding of tertiary
education in the country.