Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has berated the federal government over the conditions for accessing the student loan scheme introduced by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration.
This came as ASUU national president warned members against making the union’s struggle appear as a fight for their salaries and other welfare only at the expense of better public universities system in Nigeria .
ASUU national president, Dr. Emmanuel Osodeke, who spoke during a university-wide seminar held at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, declared that the stringent conditions set by the federal government for prospective students willing to access the loan scheme clearly indicated that children from wealthy families would end up being the beneficiaries of the scheme and not the indigent ones.
In his remarks at the event, themed: “The Demands of Scholarship in the 21st Century”, which entered its second day yesterday, Osodeke stated that the requirements, which demanded for a level-12 officer as a guarantor of such credit scheme had taken away the credibility of the scheme from the reach of poor students in public higher institutions nationwide.
The programme was organised by the ASUU national body and OOU branch under the auspices of the Centre For Popular Education (CEPED) to sensitise members that ASUU struggle is not about salaries only but about quality university education for an egalitarian society, quality outputs, better funding and better Nigeria.Twelve indigent students of OOU received scholarship grants from ASUU national body and OOU branch to cushion the effects of the current economic hardship in the country.
While the ASUU gave grants of N200,000 each to two students, OOU-ASUU awarded N100,000 each of 10 indigent students.
Osodeke said, “We need to educate our members, we need to let them know why we are struggling and to let them know about the union. We also need to bring them up to the principle of the union. They need to know why we take some actions like strike because we have some new members among us.
