The Federal Government’s student loan programme has drawn criticism from the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Calabar Zone, which views it as a scheme to enslave Nigerian students and force them to be indebted to the nation forever.
The site for loan applications launched last Friday, marking the formal launch of the Federal Government student loan programme.
On the first day of applications, at least 3,764 students from 126 universities submitted their work.
According to the Federal Government, the goal of the effort was to guarantee that no young Nigerian would be denied a higher education because of a lack of funding.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, ASUU Zonal Chairperson Dr. Happiness Uduk maintained that the student loan was a scheme to enslave young people in Nigeria.
According to Uduk, it was depressing that those who had previously benefited from food subsidies, bursary awards, and school scholarships were now imposing student debts.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the National President of ASUU, has also frequently opposed student loans, arguing that the government should instead provide bursaries to students.
In a statement co-signed by the eight union chairs, Uduk said that the Federal Government ought to provide higher education with subsidies rather than loans.
She maintained that the tertiary institutions will see a favourable reversal as a result of this action.
“It is disheartening that people who attended schools on scholarship, enjoyed meal subsidies, free laundry services, and bursary awards are the same running our economy today.
“Their children are on scholarship in the best foreign universities in the world but after siphoning our economy, they turn around to impose a strangulating education loan on taxpayers’ children who will be enslaved and remain indebted to the country forever. They do not mind the devastating effect of this scheme on the country, such as depression, suicide, and colossal loss of intellectuals.
“To this end, we vehemently condemn the idea of education loans and state clearly that using the money for intervention in higher institutions will bring about a positive turnaround of events that will make our institutions self-reliant with highly subsidised tertiary education in Nigeria,” Uduk stated.
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The ASUU chairperson urged the Federal Government to hold new negotiations and call a committee to review the agreement reached by the ASUU leadership and the government committee led by Prof. Nimi Brigs. The committee’s goal is to make necessary adjustments to the document to reflect the current state of the economy and provide an acceptable salary structure for university lecturers.
She also denounced the haphazard growth of universities in Nigeria without sufficient funding from the federal and state governments, pointing out that the 2020 ASUU-FGN Memorandum of Action, which emphasised the necessity of revising the NUC Act to strengthen its ability to halt the excessive and careless founding of universities, should be fully carried out.
According to her:
“We urge the President Tinubu-led administration to refrain from further proliferation of universities and rather consolidate on the already existing ones. What we need are universities that are adequately equipped and empowered to address the challenges confronting Nigeria not glorified schools.”
The ASUU Calabar Zone asked the FG to use collective bargaining as soon as possible to end the social debate on the ongoing minimum wage negotiations. They said that doing so would decrease the intrusive decline in Nigerians’ socioeconomic life.
cc: Punch Ng
