Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has voiced strong opposition to the recently signed student loan act, asserting that it is structured to benefit owners of private universities in Nigeria.
Gatekeepers News reports that the union’s national president, Emmanuel Osodeke on Saturday at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi criticized the move, emphasizing that the federal government has the capacity to adequately fund the country’s education system.
President Bola Tinubu assented to the student loan legislation on June 12.The initiative which is aimed at helping students in tertiary institutions to access interest-free loans from the Nigerian education loan fund.
Osodeke, represented by his deputy,Christopher Piwuna, highlighted poor funding as a major challenge faced by Nigerian institutions and advocated for grants to students and institutions instead of loans that could potentially favour private entities.
Osodeke said the union is against the student loan initiative because it would only benefit private universities. The ASUU president urged parents to join the union to ensure that the education system becomes better.
“All these issues that have led to the introduction of the loan, the issues of charges in our universities are as a result of poor funding,” he said.
“This particular effort by the government is supposed to meet that funding gap in the universities.
“We believe that the Nigerian state can adequately fund education with discipline. If the Nigerian state is serious, it can fund education.
“We are against the student loan as a form of funding education, we think the loan will go back into the coffers of private individuals who are in government today who own private universities.
“We just want to show the government that we believe that the resources are available to take care of education.”
