ASUU Questions Tinubu Administration’s Motive for Initiating the Student Loan Scheme

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has faulted the motive of the Tinubu administration in floating the student loan scheme.

ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke if the Federal Government is sincere with the scheme, the proposed loan should be in the form of grants to students and institutions.

Osodeke revisited the loan scheme while speaking to newsmen on the sideline of the award of scholarships by ASUU to indigent undergraduate students in Bauchi.

The ASUU President, represented by his Deputy, Professor Christopher Awuna, said the Union opposed the loan scheme as a form of funding university education because it would end up in the pocket of top government officials.

President Tinubu had assured that the loan scheme would kick off in January 2024, and N10 billion was voted in the 2024 budget for its implementation.

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In anticipation of the scheme, originally scheduled to take off in September 2023, all federal universities had jerked up their tuition fees by over 100 percent.

Currently, given the hike in school fees or charges in public universities all over the country, many students have not been able to resume.

ASUU Bauchi zone is working on getting the statistics of students who may likely drop out of school at the end of the current session with the hope of making the government review its decision on the issue of the loan and replace it with grants.

“In the case of federal universities, the Government seems to have abandoned its constitutional responsibility of funding universities and left it at the discretion of the various governing councils of the universities to review it at will thereby making some students drop out of school.

The ATBU Branch Chairperson, Inuwa Ibrahim, reiterated ASUU’s dedication to advocating for quality tertiary education and pledged the continuation of the annual scholarship program adding that the award which is a yearly event will always seek out brilliant but indigent students for recognition and award.