ERC said based on the set criteria, “it will be easier for a camel to pass through a needle than for an indigent student to secure the loan.”
A civil society group- Education Rights Campaign (ERC), has described as ‘anti-masses’ the recently signed Access to Higher Education Act, otherwise known as Students’ Loan Act, by the Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu.
Mr Tinubu appended his signature to the law which gives legal backing to the provision of loans for Nigerians who cannot afford higher education in the country’s public tertiary institutions.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) hailed the president for assenting to the bill which it said will help increase access to higher education.
Condemnation
ERC said the Act will shut the door of tertiary education against poor Nigerians.
A statement signed by the Deputy National Coordinator and National Mobilisation Officer, Ogunjimi Isaac and Adaramoye Michael, respectively, noted that the Act is pro-capitalist and against the Nigerian masses.
The statement said: “We think those who have applauded the Act are either ignorant of the real consequences or they are anti-poor and pro-capitalist elements who do not believe that education ought to be an inalienable right and not a privilege”.
ERC described Act as a fraudulent piece of legislation “that on the one hand claims to open access to higher education through students loans but on the other hand puts up innumerable restrictions and hurdles to ensure that only a fraction of poor and indigent students who need support actually gets this loan.”
The group said the Act is part of a ploy by the government to fully commercialise public education while legitimising the government’s abdication of its role in funding public education.
Call for rejection
The group called on Nigerians to reject the law which it said is part of a plan to introduce tuition fees in public institutions.
The group also called on the government to adequately fund public education and reverse the hike in fees across campuses in the country.
“We hereby call on all Nigerian students, parents, civil society organisations, education workers’ unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to reject the Student Loan Act and the plan to introduce tuition fee,” it said.
The group said the conditions listed in the Act are also stringent and do not necessarily cater for the needs of the indigent students it was supposed to cater for.
For instance, the group said the law only provides loans to pay tuition which is only a fraction of expenses incurred by students.
With most students staying outside the school campus, the ERC said the Act does not help indigent students, saying it does not provide loans to cater for the cost of living.
The group also condemned the section of the student loan which prescribed that an applicant’s income or family income must be less than N500,000 per annum, describing it as ‘unreasonable high qualification criteria’.
“By virtue of the Minimum Wage Act 2019, the lowest paid worker in Nigeria is meant to take home nothing less than N30,000 per month. Now if you divide N500,000 by 12 calendar months, it will give you N42,000 as the maximum income the family of a beneficiary must have. By saying family, it is logically inferable that the Act means the salary of not one but both parents. Therefore by virtue of the Minimum Wage Act, the lowest family income of two parents should be nothing less than N60,000 on a monthly basis which would be N720,000 per annum – an amount that is far above the threshold contemplated in the Act.
“What this means is that the children of the lowest-paid worker will not be able to access this loan. If low-paid workers do not qualify as poor in the wisdom of the drafters of this legislation then who exactly is poor in this country? What rationale did the drafters of this legislation use in determining the criteria for qualification?” the statement added.
ERC also said the condition that each applicant must provide at least two guarantors, each of whom must be a civil servant of at least level 12 in service, a lawyer with at least 10 years post-call experience, a judicial officer, or a justice of peace, will make it easier for a camel to pass through a needle than for an indigent student to secure the loan.
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe