By Gift Obiajuru Ukadikebuazua
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU National President, in an interview on Channels Television, has urged President Tinubu to convert the newly signed students’ loans bill into law to grant poor Nigerian students access to education.
According to Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU Chairman, during the Channels Television interview, “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.”
President Tinubu assented to the students’ loan bill on Monday, June 12th. The bill was championed by the speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamiala, and is now supported by the incumbent Chief of Staff to the President.
The National President of the ASUU union expressed opposition to the students’ loan and its conditions, stating that he believes it is neither practicable nor sustainable. He pointed out that over 90% of students would not meet the “strict conditions” required to obtain and repay the loan.
Prof. Osodeke stated on TV, “The idea of students’ loans came in 1972, and it was established in a bank. People who took loans never paid; you can go and investigate. In 1994, 1993, the military enacted Decree 50, which also established a students’ loan board. The National Assembly domesticated it in 2004, and within a year, it disappeared. The money disappeared. We want to see how this one will be different.”
According to Prof. Osodeke, “As a union, we also conducted research on countries all over the world where people have benefited from this loan. They were committing suicide. Recently, Biden is trying to pay back the bank loans of some who borrowed in the US.”
He further stated, “It is better to look for alternative means of funding education than to burden students whose parents earn N30,000 a month with a loan.”
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