Abubakar Hassan Fulata, the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on University Education, has refuted claims that members sought bribes of ₦480 million in order to approve the 2025 budget’s allocation for some federal universities and other postsecondary educational establishments.
He claimed that individuals disseminating these stories are merely attempting to sabotage the MPs’ work.
Fulata defended the members by stating that there was no executive session or private meeting during the budget defense, which was held in the House temporary chamber and was accessible to the public and media.
According to a revelation by an online news outlet, several National Assembly MPs organized a bribery scheme that targeted federal colleges and other higher education establishments around the nation.
The study claims that in order to convince university presidents to approve their allocations in the 2025 budget, lawmakers are threatening and intimidating them into paying ₦8 million apiece.
Members of the House of Representatives and senators are allegedly involved in the extortion scam.
According to reports, the MPs, acting through the House Committee on University Education and the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund, sought funding from universities in order to approve their budgets.
Fulata, however, rejected all of the allegations.
He maintained that by offering suggestions on how colleges should behave, lawmakers have been at the forefront of making life easier for them.
“With the exception of Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State, whose vice-chancellor denied the lawmakers access to the school and failed to provide documents regarding the budget performance of previous years (2022 to 2024) and 2025 budget proposal,” he continued, “lawmakers in the Green Chamber conducted oversight visits to all federal universities under his committee’s supervision.”
He claimed that President Bola Tinubu agreed to remove universities and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) because of the legislators’ opposition to its inclusion, arguing that it is “anti-intellectual, anti-academics, and retrogressive.”
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He claims that the lack of university and other tertiary institution councils almost a year after the current government took office prompted the House of Representatives to consider and approve a motion asking the president to form the councils, which the president did almost immediately.
According to him, the House Committee on University Education conducted an oversight visit to all federal universities under its purview in 2024, with the exception of Federal University Gusau in Zamfara State, whose vice chancellor not only denied lawmakers access to the institution but also neglected to produce documentation pertaining to the budget performance of the previous years (2022–2024) and the budget proposal for 2025. According to him, the purpose of the oversight visit was to obtain a better understanding of the universities’ issues and progress.
He claims that the administrations of practically every university he visited lodged strong complaints about the increase in electricity rates.
We believed that our tertiary institutions could not benefit from some of the universities paying roughly N100 million in monthly electricity tariffs. On this matter, I proposed a motion, and the House passed a resolution calling for either a reduction in the power tariff or the expulsion of these institutions from the Band A group of electricity tariffs.
“Mr. President once more heard our plea and granted a 50% electricity tariff subsidy for colleges of education, universities, polytechnics, all tertiary institutions, and hospitals,” Fulata stated.
He added that on January 15, 2025, just after the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration, the National Universities Commission and university vice chancellors had an open meeting to discuss the committee’s budget defense.
