The leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students, on Tuesday demanded that president Bola Tinubu remove the Academic Staff Union of Universities from the student loan board.
According to The PUNCH, the association stated this during a meeting with Tinubu on Monday.
The Association’s President, Umar Barambu who led the delegation while speaking to journalist after the visit urged Tinubu to review the constitution of the special committee that will oversee the new Nigerian Education Loan Fund to include student representatives.
The NANS President said: “We thank the President for the Students Loan Bill.
“We have outlined the clauses that we are not too comfortable with. And part of them is the issue of that board that we mentioned to the President, which we said at least students’ representatives should be captured and there are some organisations that they put there, which to us, they don’t need to be there.
“We gave him an example, most especially the Nigerian Bar Association, ASUU. ASUU has its own microfinance bank running their own affairs without students on their board. So, I don’t think it’s wise for us to allow them to be inside our own board because it is purely students.
“We are the major stakeholders of that bank. So I don’t think allowing them to be there is good. Not only them, we mentioned a lot of people that they should remove and put more of student-oriented organisation.”
The President responded by promising to take the NANS leaders’ wishes into consideration but advising the student body to ensure national unanimity among its members in order to accomplish more.
“You have to promote unity and stability among each other. You have to employ democratic means in your programmes and elections. I have to say anyone who is unable to accept and celebrate a free and fair election, does not deserve the joy of victory,” Tinubu said.
PUNCH also reported that ASUU while reacting to the enactment of the student loan bill stated that
the loan bill as discriminatory between the children of the rich and the poor.
National President, ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview with journalists, said, “The union will react soon but everyone knows our position on student loans because you will end up encumbering the children of the poor with loans and debt after graduating. This is discriminatory. If what I read online is correct, it said it is only for children whose parents earn at least N500,000 per annum. That means if your father earns more, you won’t benefit.”
