SAHARA REPORTERS
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has again warned the President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government over its proposed student loan, saying beneficiaries of such initiative in other countries were committing suicide as a result of debts.
The union, therefore, asked Tinubu to change the newly assented Students Loans Act to grants for poor students.
ASUU National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, gave the advice on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
He 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 accessed 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.”
Tinubu signed the Students Loans Bill into law last week.
The law provides for interest-free loans to poor Nigerian students. The loan repayment starts two years after the beneficiary completes the National Youth Service Corps.
However, the ASUU President said the policy is not sustainable.
“The idea of student loans came in 1972 and it was in a bank established. People who took loans never paid.
“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,” Osodeke added.
ASUU President also said the conditions for the loan are not practicable.
He said more than 90% of students would not meet the requirements to access 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.
While calling on the President to take another look at the new law, Osodeke also asked him to probe the activities of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
He alleged that the fund had been colonised with “interests all over the place”, adding that whoever had stolen money should be identified and punish.
