The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said the Student Loan Bill, which President Bola Tinubu signed into law, is counterproductive.
The President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, recently stated that introducing such a bill in a country where more than 133 million live below the poverty line is counterproductive.
ASUU President Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke
Also, Osodeke explained that the bill could send many students out of school as the law might adversely affect millions of prospective students who rely on tuition-free higher institutions of learning to acquire knowledge.
He also revealed that the bill is not new and explained how the union rejected it when former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration brought it up.
He noted that the union has yet to have access to the accurate copy of the law signed by Tinubu, adding that there was a need to get and study it.
“We have said long ago, in 2017, to President Buhari when they came up with the issue of tuition fees, that every student will pay N1 million, and we said you cannot put that in our agreement.
“And you cannot use that to negotiate with us, and with the nature of the country we have today, there is no way that will work.
“What will happen is that the majority of students whose parents cannot afford it will pull out of school in anger and you know what that means, they will fight the society back. But let us get the correct information first before knowing the next steps,” he added.
(Source: politicsnigeria.com)
