Why we’re not surprised about N100bn student loan controversy — ASUU

The Academic Staff of Universities (ASUU) has declared that it is not surprised by the allegation of fraudulent practice rocking the operations of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).

The National President of the union, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this on Friday in an exclusive interview with Tribune Online when asked for his reaction on the matter.

Anti-graft agency, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission(ICPC) on Thursday, in a statement, revealed that only N28.8bn was disbursed so far to students in various tertiary institutions nationwide instead of N100 billion released to the schools.

The agency revealed further that it was currently investigating no fewer than 51 vice-chancellors allegedly found to have manipulated the money meant for the scheme.

ASUU president, while speaking, said the development did not come to the union as a surprise, pointing out that ASUU did not see the scheme as being successful from its beginning.

According to him, as a union, ASUU did not believe in the students’ loan scheme and it had made this position public from the beginning of the scheme.

While explaining reasons for the persistence of ASUU, Osodeke said, “The first students’ loan scheme by the Nigerian government in 1992 failed because of corruption and likewise that of the early 2000s also failed because of corruption. And it will be difficult for any scheme like this to be corruption-free in Nigeria.

“Another reason we opposed the scheme is that it isn’t right for the government to burden the students with loans, especially when many of them might not be economically engaged several years after graduation.

“Then, we suggested to the government that students who genuinely need financial support should be given grants or scholarships that will not be repaid, just like many of them at the corridors of power today enjoyed during their days in the universities, but they didn’t listen to us. Rather, they called us names.”

Osodeke asked how much N42.2 billion is said to have been disbursed by NELFUND on students since inception two years ago, was out of N200 billion available that the government could not give to students as grants or bursaries, especially when the same government could give over N90 billion to people who go on muslim and Christian pilgrimages.

“Which issue should the government have prioritised between education or religion?

“That is why we said our political leaders always give priority to issues that are less important,” he added

Osodeke argued further that “Giving N42.2 billion to poor Nigerian students in two years free shouldn’t be a big deal for the government, especially now that the government has more money than before.

“After all, most of these political leaders got bursary awards fromthe government during their time and now we have more money than that period, whether we believe it or not.

“So, why do we need to encumber the students and not give the money to them as grants?

“Even at our level as a union, we give scholarships to indigent students in our various universities and if there is a political will from the part of the government which has all the resources to itself, it will conveniently give grants to students

“So, the matter should be thoroughly investigated and not swept under the carpet and any individual or school found culpable should be brought to justice.

“People should be held accountable for their actions at whatever office they occupy.”