THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) wants President Bola Tinubu to change the Students Loans Act to grant for indigent students.
ASUU’s President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke made the demand as a guest on a television programme on Sunday.
He said that the loan was impracticable because it is not sustainable as there are more than one million students in public universities.
According to him, the loan cannot adequately cater for students’ tuition, noting that more than ninety percent of students won’t meet the stringent requirements to access and repay the loan.
Professor Osodeke said that research studies of countries and people who have benefited from such loans revealed that they were committing suicide due to their inability to pay back the loans.
“This would have been better if we are giving it to those students who are very poor, it should be called a grant, not a loan,” Prof Osodeke said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.
“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.”
Penultimate Monday, President Tinubu signed into law the Students Loans Bill in fulfilment of a promise he made during his campaign. The bill was sponsored by the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who is now the President’s Chief of Staff. Now an Act, the law provides for interest-free loans to poor Nigerian students.
However, the ASUU President insists the loan is impracticable. He said the loan is “not sustainable”.
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 and 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, there are more than one million students in Nigerian public universities and the loan cannot adequately cater for students’ tuition.
The ASUU President said the conditions for the loan are “not practicable”, adding that more than 90% of students won’t meet the “stringent requirements” to access 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.
“It is better to look for alternative means of funding education than to encumber students whose parents earn N30,000 a month with a loan.”
Eighteen-Eleven Media