The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated that the student loan bill signed into law by Tinubu will lead to many students dropping out of school.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the President of ASUU stated this on Tuesday while speaking with Men of the Press.
Chronicle NG had reported that Tinubu, in fulfilling one of his campaign promises, signed the Student Loan bill into law on Monday.
However, the ASUU boss has stated that the law may hurt students who rely on tuition-free institutions to acquire knowledge.
According to Osodeke, “A country where more than 133 million are living below the poverty line and you want to introduce tuition fees? It will be counterproductive”.
He further stated that “Every Nigerian should know what is going to happen next and there may likely be another bill waiting for signature that will introduce tuition fees.
“If the bill indicated that the loan is to pay tuition fees and there are no tuition fees in Nigerian universities, then what is your next approach?”
Osodeke espoused how the union rejected the bill when the Buhari administration introduced 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.
