ASUU Advocates for Grants Over Student Loans, Cites High Risks for Students

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has sternly opposed the newly passed Students Loan Act, which was recently signed into law by President Tinubu. The union claimed that such a law may have devastating effects on students, especially those from poor backgrounds. It would be better, ASUU argued, if the government were to give grants to indigent students instead of loans.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, the president of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke noted that there were financial and emotional burdens associated with student loans. “This would have been better if we are giving it to those set of students who are very poor. It should be called a grant, not a loan,” he said. Osodeke warned of the potential stress involved when, within a few years after graduation, graduates are compelled to pay, an act which has seen some in foreign lands facing incarceration for failure to meet repayment requirements.

The union further highlighted the high access requirements of the loans, indicating that as many as over 90 percent of the students may not be qualified, hence defeating the intention of the intervention to give relief to students. The research into the operations of international student loan schemes also increased the union’s anger. It was said to have been discovered that the psychological effect of repayment of the loan in a number of countries had driven some beneficiaries to tragic ends, including s**cide.

ASUU’s strong stance is due to their concerns about the viability and fairness of the Students Loan Act. By transforming the initiative into a grant-based system, the union believes it would alleviate financial stress and provide equal opportunities for students from lower-income families. They argue that grants would be a more humane and effective way of fostering educational access without saddling young graduates with lifelong debt.

Responding to criticism from the academic staff union, stakeholders and policymakers should take careful considerations against the implications of the Students Loan Act. Whether or not the Act would undergo some amendments has become blurry in their minds. But the pleading from the union shows the reforms have become an urgent matter as a means to ensure education as a right, not something burdening.

These were Osodeke’s exact words on Channel TV:

“Our issue with NELFUND is that in a country like Nigeria, it should be grants; and not a loan.

“All the universities are increasing their fees now; jerking up their fees so that the students will borrow more loans from this NELFUND, encumbering the children of the poor.

“In my university, in my department, I now have less than 10 students in the department, many have dropped out. Apart from some of these big courses like Medicine, Law and what have you, students are dropping out. The children of the poor are dropping out.”

“We are the academia, we do our research, we have searched all over the world, we have not seen. In most countries where you are having student loans when they graduate, they become problems in society. Some of them are demoralized.

“Imagine a student graduating from the university with a loan of five million naira. Even me as a professor, I can not pay back such a loan in 20 years’ time. Then student who graduates you have a loan of 5 million and you are getting a job in next 20 years.

“And we are saying if you look at what happened in the 60s and 70s you can go to that level. The children of the poor assist them, increase budgetary allocation to education and this issue of loan will not come out.

“This is the third time they are introducing it, the last two times it collapsed, nobody benefitted. Those that benefitted didn’t pay back because it collapsed. So how are we sure this one will survive?”

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