FG’s loan and Nigerian students

After the Student Loan Bill was signed, it has been a matter of discourse across the length and breadth of the country and have left students’ tongue wagging on the pros and cons of the patchy Act, as recently assented to by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Though, the bill is titled; “Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023.” was sponsored by the immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, the bill was introduced in 2016 as part of measures towards addressing the funding gaps in the country’s tertiary education subsector.

The Act, according to the Federal government, is aimed at providing interest-free loans to Nigerians seeking higher education.

Apart from the fact that public schools are insufficient, the schools have also introduced various methods to demand fees from parents by providing basic needs such as desks, chalks, and even infrastructure.

Also, public tertiary institutions have always claimed that tuition is free but sundry payments are introduced to augment allocations from the Nigerian government.

However, since education is on the concurrent list in the country’s constitution, many of the 36 states of the federation have introduced tuition in their tertiary schools, which many students have described as unaffordable.

But, there have been several debates and contention as to the “mixed blessing act” that may be of benefit to average students and at the same time serves as a whip to defaulters.

One of the conditions set in the Act limits beneficiaries to children or wards of parents whose annual income is not more than N500,000.

Another condition also limits the loan to payment of tuition fees which, as of now, is non-existent across many tertiary institutions owned by the federal government.

According to a recent report by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) about N1.08 trillion was budgeted for education in the 2023 budget. This is about 5.3 per cent of the total N20.5 trillion budget, below the 15 per cent minimum spending recommended for developing countries.

Meanwhile, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), Anderson Ezeibe, has expressed concern over the sustainability of the initiative “due to Nigeria’s high unemployment rate.” while The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the Nigerian government of attempts to ‘systematically’ wash its hands off the funding of public universities with the introduction of a student loan bill by the National Assembly.

Also, a senior staff at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, said the new Act will not only impose an additional burden on Nigerians but also open doors for corruption.

He said the requirements to access the loans, as highlighted in the Act, would make it difficult for Nigerians to benefit and that those who may benefit are also threatened to begin payment two years after graduation.

In an honest reaction to the Act, this newspaper is trying to maintain equilibrium, in a situation where the so-called graduate cannot get his desired job to pay up his debt, that’s another financial hullabaloo yet to be unravelled.

This can only work if there is maximum security of job to graduates which provides better chances of securing high paying jobs, to pay and make more money to feed their family.

Also, a good policy and provision must be implemented if it will make life better. However, all good things in Nigeria die due to corruption and the injection of politics into what is, essentially, a social welfare policy designed to grant indigent students access to funding they desperately need to pursue their tertiary education aspirations.

Though, President Tinubu must be commended for the giant stride and step taken towards contributing to the nation’s human capital development. We also rejoice with the students on this legal document that has been made policy by the administration in the hope that it will not be bugged down by the nuisance that is often dismissed as the Nigerian factor.

It is pertinent to observe that indigency is a phenomenon that has no religious, ethnic or tribal affiliation. It rarely understands politics. For those inflicted by this malaise, the only language that makes sense to them is the type Tinubu has just spoken. It is in this regard that we are compelled to urge the President to match his words with action in terms of providing the needed logistics and funding that will immediately activate the policy with the overarching desire to provide a reprieve to that class of students who had, before now, been denied higher education because their families are not in a financial position to do anything about it.

It is from this perspective, therefore, that we are persuaded to also appeal to the President to ensure that his noble intents in fast-tracking the signing of this bill into law is not sacrificed on the altar of partisan politics and other mundane considerations. He must put mechanisms in place to prevent the policy from becoming another “TraderMoni” that was known to be a vote buying gimmick that concentrated on either members of the ruling party, their families and friends or used to lure uncommitted voters to the net.

It should be of serious matter that the President must see the clinical need to rebuild the economy so that those who access the loan can secure jobs on graduation and be able to meet their obligations to the scheme in terms of repaying what they owe. That, in our view, is one of the ways the scheme can hope to be a success.