The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has requested that President Bola Tinubu amend the recently passed Students Loan Act to include provisions for impoverished students.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, ASUU National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke said, “This would have been better if we are giving it to those set of students who are very poor, it should be called a grant, not a loan,”
“It should be called a grant since it is coming from the Federation Account and not that (after) these people have access to it and when they are graduating, they have heavy loads behind them and within two years, if they don’t pay, they go to jail. That’s why we’re talking about collective bargaining. You have views from all the sides.”
Tinubu signed the Students Loans Bill into law on Monday, fulfilling a campaign pledge he made. The measure was sponsored by Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives and presently the President’s Chief of Staff. The law, which is now an Act, provides for interest-free loans to disadvantaged Nigerian students.
The loan, according to the ASUU President, is not feasible. He stated that the debt is “unsustainable.”
Osodeke said, “The idea of student loan came in 1972 and it was in a bank established. People who took loans never paid, you can go and investigate. In 1994, 1993, the military enacted Decree 50 also set up a Students’ Loan Board. The National Assembly domesticated it in 2004 and within a year, it went off. The money disappeared. We want to see how this one will be different.”
According to him, over one million students attend Nigerian public universities, and the loan cannot sufficiently cover their tuition.
The loan terms, according to the ASUU President, are “not practicable,” and more than 90% of students will not meet the “stringent requirements” to receive and repay the loan.
“We, as a union, also did research of countries all over the world, of people who have benefited from this loan, they were committing suicide. Recently, (President Joe) Biden is trying to pay back the bank loans of some who borrowed in the US,” he said.
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“It is better to look for alternative means of funding education than to encumbering students whose parents earn N30,000 a month with a loan.”
