Date: 2017-11-02

Founder of Thomas Adewumi College, Oko (TAICO) Kwara state, Dr Thomas Adewumi has decried the high rate of taxes imposed on owners of private educational institutions in the country.

Adewumi who pointed out that such institutions are established for the revival of the fallen standard rather than monetary gains, canvassed a more friendly tax policy to encourage operators of such schools.

He spoke at the grand finale of the 20th anniversary of the foremost co-educational school, which also runs 'A' levels programme.

Adewumi said, "People think that education is an investment in Nigeria or elsewhere in the world. It is not. We see it as a call to invest in people's lives and contribute our quota to the growth of the sector. Government has asked us to pay about N3. 5m annually as ground rent. Government should not see education as a commercial venture.

"Instead, it should commend the efforts of the people using their resources to invest in standard education. For instance, Adewumi has no business investing in education if the government is doing the right thing in that sector. We give countless scholarships to indigent students, just as we have produced many leaders and technocrats who are well tutored to take over the duties of leadership in the country."

He also listed the projects executed by the school as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to its host community.

According to him, the school built a 26- bed capacity hospital for the use of the community and its adjoining settlements. "The hospital was fully equipped by the British High Commission in Nigeria and has in its services two medical doctors and six nurses.

Adewumi who used the occasion to fete his friends and pioneer staff of the school including his wife, Gloria, narrated how he had used the school to engender harmonious relationship between the host community and Fulani herdsmen.