Why Tinubu should convert students loan to grant ― ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is suggesting that President Bola Tinubu converts the newly assented Students Loans Act to a grant for indigent students.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, ASUU National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke said that converting the loan act into a grant would be better because it is being given to a set of students who are very poor.

The ASUU President further stated that the requirements for the loan are “not practicable”, adding that more than 90% of students won’t meet the “stringent requirements” to access and repay the loan.

Osodeke said, “It should be called a grant since it is coming from the Federation Account and not that (after) these people have access to it and when they are graduating, they have heavy loads behind them and within two years, if they don’t pay, they go to jail. That’s why we’re talking about collective bargaining, you have views from all the sides.”

Recall that on Monday, June 12, President Tinubu signed into law an interest-free Students Loans Bill in fulfilment of a promise he made during his campaign.

The bill was sponsored by the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who is now the President’s Chief of Staff.

However, the ASUU President said the loan is impracticable and not sustainable.

Osodeke said, “The idea of student loan came in 1972 and it was in a bank established. People who took loans never paid, you can go and investigate. In 1994, 1993, the military enacted Decree 50 also set up a Students’ Loan Board. The National Assembly domesticated it in 2004 and within a year, it went off. The money disappeared. We want to see how this one will be different.”

“We, as a union also did research of countries all over the world, of people who have benefited from this loan, they were committing suicide. Recently, (President Joe) Biden is trying to pay back the bank loans of some who borrowed in the US,” he said.

“It is better to look for alternative means of funding education than to encumbering students whose parents earn N30,000 a month with a loan.”