Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Qosim Suleiman
Published on 2024-02-20 09:23:39
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declined to be part of the membership of a special committee responsible for a student loan scheme introduced by the administration of President Bola Tinubu. The scheme, which is scheduled to commence on Monday, 26 February, aims to provide loans to indigent or low-income Nigerians to facilitate the payment of their tuition fees in Nigerian universities.
The 11-member special committee, which is provided for under Section 7 of the Access to Higher Education Act 2023, is chaired by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, and has other members expected to be drawn from the ministries of finance and education, Nigeria Labour Congress, committees of vice-chancellors, provosts of colleges and rectors of polytechnics, Nigerian Bar Association, NUC, among others. However, ASUU, the largest academic staff union in Nigerian universities, declined participation in the special committee.
The uion has consistently rejected the law which introduced the scheme, accusing the government of covertly starving universities of adequate funding. According to ASUU, this has repeatedly led to conflict between the union and the government and has caused academic disruptions in the nation’s tertiary institutions for years.
Furthermore, since the suspension of a strike a year ago, students in Nigerian universities have witnessed a sharp rise in their fee schedule even though the government maintains that the institutions remain tuition-free. ASUU’s rejection of the student loan scheme is a result of the deep-seated issue of underfunding in universities, which has led to tensions between the union and the government.
The special committee, led by Olayemi Cardoso, held its inaugural meeting recently, where Mr Cardoso charged members to use their skills to ensure the success of the programme. He pledged his commitment and support to the programme, which he described as one of Mr Tinubu’s signature projects, aimed at reducing the burden of funding education for Nigerian students.
The Access to Higher Education Act, signed by Mr Tinubu in June 2023, creates a legal framework for granting loans to indigent or low-income Nigerians to facilitate the payment of their tuition fees in Nigerian universities. The primary objective of the Act is to foster the accessibility of higher education for Nigerian students, while also extending the scheme to cover Nigerians undergoing vocational training.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is the body created by the Act to handle all loan requests, grants, disbursement, and recovery of the loans provided. The Fund, according to the Act, will be funded through donations, gifts, grants, endowment, and revenue accruing to the fund from any other source.
This development underscores a major challenge in the Nigerian education system, which is the lack of adequate funding for the universities. While the government aims to implement a student loan scheme as a solution, the rejection of ASUU, the largest academic staff union in Nigerian universities, poses significant challenges to its implementation. This is a continuation of the longstanding struggle over funding between the union and the government, and it remains to be seen how these issues will be addressed.
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