Change Student Loan To Grant For Poor Students, ASUU Urges Tinubu

The New Diplomat
Writer

Ad

How Obasanjo Got Angry at Me Over Diesel Deregulation – Otedola Opens Up

By Abiola Olawale Nigerian billionaire businessman, Mr Femi Otedola has shared a dramatic encounter with former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the 2004 diesel deregulation policy. This was detailed in his upcoming memoir, Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, set for release on August 18, 2025, by FO Books. Otedola, then chairman of…

Trump-Putin Talks Put Oil Markets on Edge

The Trump-Putin meeting has become the main commodity market news of this week, with analysts speculating about the likelihood of a comprehensive deal and the impacts this could have on oil markets. ICE Brent has been gradually sliding closer to $65 per barrel as lower sanction risks on Russia could further erode the market’s in-built…

2027: PDP Warns Wike, Fayose: Endorse Tinubu, Risk Expulsion, Sanctions 

By Abiola Olawale The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned its members, including prominent figures like the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, against endorsing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for re-election in 2027. The party’s National Working Committee (NWC) declared that such actions constitute anti-party activities…

Ad

By Charles Adingupu

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked President Bola Tinubu to change the recently assented Students Loans Act to grant for indigent students.

“It 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,” ASUU National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke said on Channels Television’s Politics programme.

“It should be called a grant since it is coming from the Federation Account and not that (after) these people have access 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.”

On Monday, 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 said 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 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 encumbering students whose parents earn N30,000 a month with a loan.”

Ad

X whatsapp