Follow Us on Google
By Gabriel Dike
Opposition against the introduction of student loans by the administration of President Bola Tinubu has taken another turn as the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) described the scheme as a scam and threat to public tertiary institutions in the country.
Oyelumade Oluwalemi, Hassan Taiwo, Ismaila Barakat and Ibrahim Duroorike at ERC’s unveiling of publication in Lagos
National coordinator of ERC, Comrade Hassan Taiwo, who described the scheme as unworkable and a scam, urged the Tinubu administration to convert the student loans to grants, to support the living expenses of undergraduates.
Taiwo spoke at the unveiling of a new presentation by ERC, titled, “Ten Reasons why Tinubu’s Students Loan is a Scam.” The publication, which was supported by ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), attracted many student leaders and activists.
His words: “Since the students loan was signed into law on 12th June, 2023, we have been campaigning against it, exposing its contradictions and its unworkability.
“Despite our best efforts and the mass opposition of a broad spectrum of society, including stakeholders in the education sector, the President Tinubu administration has insisted it would go ahead with this policy, starting from January 2024.’’
According to him, the publication is another effort by the ERC and other groups within and outside the education sector to continue to expose the contradictions and unworkability of the scheme.
“This publication contains important facts and evidence about why the loan policy is ill-thought, unnecessary, unworkable, anti-poor and a cleverly packaged gimmick to destroy the fabric of public education to the detriment of the Nigerian people and our children’s future,’’ he said.
Taiwo stated that ERC would take the publication to all campuses nationwide in order to begin to mobilise Nigerian students and education workers against the policy.
He explained that the publication were able to demonstrate that the students loan policy is a scam and it claim to open access to higher education to indigent students but rather shut the door against those who need education.
Said he: “It is being presented as the solution to the wave of fee hike raging across campuses right now. Meanwhile, it is the students’ loan policy itself that is enabling fee hike as university administrators jostle to ensure they have a cost-reflective fee regime before January 2024. This loan policy will force students into lifelong indebtedness.’’
The ERC boss said the students loan is a smokescreen to take education out of the poor, transform public education into a business and students into customers, the scheme has not worked anywhere else, cater for minority of the indigent students population, lead to mass drop-out and decline in enrolment, lead to job loss for education workers and that it is based on false assumptions that Nigeria is poor to fund public education.
He welcomed the injection of N1, 7trillion into public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education and that it would make a far more difference in the education sector.
Taiwo called on Nigerian students and education workers to reject the students loan policy and join the ERC to begin to fight for a cut in government profligacy in order to make money available
“It is a fact that the problem of education institutions is not only about funding but also that of mismanagement and looting of government allocations and internal generated revenue by the school administrators. Many vice chancellors have been indicted of fraud and stealing of funds,’’ Taiwo observed.
He called on Nigerian students and education workers to demand for the conversion of the students’ loan into a grant, reversal of all hiked fees, increase in allocation to education in 2024 appropriation bill from 7.9 percent to 15 percent, slash in the profligate expenses, salaries and allowances of political office holders, democratic management of schools and reinstatement of victimized students as well as staff activists.
Spokesperson of ERC, Gideon Adeyemi said the Tinubu administration is pretending that the students’ loan policy is a solution to higher fees in tertiary institutions.
Adeyemi said the ERC carried out analysis on the scheme and discovered that it would not favour the poor and mass, adding, “we will circulate the publication around the various campuses.’’
