The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called for the conversion of the Nigerian Educational Loan Fund (NELFUND) to grants.
National President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, spoke in reaction to the N850m announced by NELFUND for disbursement last Wednesday.
President Bola Tinubu approved N35bn for the take-off of the scheme after signing the law backing the scheme on April 3.
During his speech on the ongoing protest, Tinubu said another N46bn was ready for disbursement.
At least 1.2 million students are expected to benefit from the program. NELFUND revealed it had disbursed a total of N1.17bn to 20,000 students in five of the public tertiary institutions that applied for the loan.
Osodeke insisted that if the Federal Government could give some people a sum of N90b for Hajj prayer, he did not see the reason why the government could not give the N35b NELFUND loans to grants for students.
He said, “We are not aware of the new one you mentioned. We are not in support of anything student loans. We stand our ground that it should be a grant, not a loan.
“If we’re in a country where you can give N90b people for Hajj prayer and you want to disburse N35b as loans to Nigerian students who are future leaders, who will work in different parastatals. Even in that part of the world where student loan is given, people are committing suicide.”
Osodeke added that the student loan would keep beneficiaries in permanent hardship after graduation. “Even in the U.S. where there are jobs the president had to pay the loans for those who couldn’t pay back recently.
“Giving loans here in Nigeria where people are not sure of getting a job 10, to 20 years after graduation is unfair. They’re creating more hardships for the students and room for insecurity. They want to burden poor students with loans, it’s not fair. They should convert it to loans,” he said.
