The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the Calabar Zone has sharply criticised the Federal Government’s new student loan initiative, labelling it a strategy to burden Nigerian students with lifelong debt.
The student loan scheme was officially launched last Friday with the opening of the application portal, witnessing 3,764 applications from students across 126 institutions on its first day. The Federal Government claims the scheme aims to ensure no Nigerian youth is denied higher education due to financial constraints.
However, at a press conference in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, on Monday, ASUU’s Zonal Chairperson, Dr Happiness Uduk, dismissed the initiative as a ploy to enslave Nigerian youths.
“It is disheartening that those who enjoyed scholarships, meal subsidies, and bursary awards are now imposing loans on students,” Uduk remarked.
Dr Uduk argued that rather than loans, the government should provide subventions to higher institutions to foster a positive transformation in tertiary education. This sentiment was echoed by ASUU’s National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who has consistently advocated for student bursaries over loans.
Uduk elaborated, “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.”
ASUU urged the Federal Government to reconsider the loan scheme, suggesting that investment in higher institutions would result in self-reliant, highly subsidised tertiary education in Nigeria.
Furthermore, the union called for the government to renegotiate the existing agreement between ASUU and the Prof. Nimi Briggs-led committee to reflect current economic realities and establish a fair salary structure for university lecturers.
Dr Uduk also criticised the proliferation of universities without adequate funding, urging the government to halt the establishment of new institutions and instead consolidate and adequately equip existing ones. She pointed to the 2020 ASUU-FGN Memorandum of Action, which advocated for a review of the National Universities Commission (NUC) Act to prevent the reckless creation of new universities.
“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,” she asserted.
On the ongoing minimum wage negotiations, the ASUU Calabar Zone called on the Federal Government to utilise collective bargaining to promptly conclude discussions, emphasising that this would alleviate the socio-economic decline affecting Nigerians.
