A CIVIL society organisation, Education Rights Campaign (ERC), on Wednesday condemned the signing into law the Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) Act 2023 by President Bola Tinubu, describing it as a smokescreen to take higher education out of the reach of poor Nigerians.
ERC described the Act as “a piece of fraudulent legislation that on the one hand claims to open access to higher education through students’ loan but on the other hand putting up innumerable restrictions and hurdles to ensure that only a fraction of poor and indigent students get the loan.”
The body stated this at a press conference in Lagos where it also noted that Act “is the work of con-artists whose aim is to hoodwink the mass of Nigerian people including students, the youth, parents and workers into thinking that it expands access to higher education whereas what it does is to shut the door more firmly against the majority of Nigerians seeking higher education”.
At the press conference were notable rights activists such as Comrades Hassan Taiwo (Soweto), Achike Chudde (JAC), and Gideon Adeyemi, ERC’s spokesperson.
In the text of the press conference made available to journalists, and signed by Comrade Ogunjimi Isaac, Deputy National Coordinator of ERC, and Comrade Adaramoye Michael Lenin, ERC’s National Mobilisation Officer, ERC demanded that the students loan should be turned into a grant to support the living expenses of students in public tertiary institutions whose cost of living has risen astronomically due to the fuel subsidy removal and other anti-poor economic measures.
It also demanded the reversal of all hiked fees across campuses in Nigeria, as it called on “government to fund public education adequately” and “ensure democratic management of allocation and finance of institutions and meet the demands of unions.”
ERC also called for the nationalisation of the commanding heights of Nigeria’s economy under democratic workers control and management in order to secure the resources needed to fund public education and other social services adequately.
It urged all Nigerian students, parents, civil Society organisations, education workers unions, Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress to reject the Act and the plan to introduce tuition fee.
