I am one for students’ loan; it does not necessarily have to be exactly the way it has come through the Femi Gbajabiamila-sponsored bill signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last month. For one, Tinubu rushed to sign the bill so it would not become stale. Had the 10th National Assembly been proclaimed before the bill was assented to, it would have died a natural death.
In 2016 , Gbaja, as he is fondly called, had introduced the bill in the eighth National Assembly but it didn’t garner enough attention. He reintroduced it in 2019; still not much traction. But a golden opportunity came for the bill following the eight-month-long industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Barely two months after ASUU suspended its strike, the two chambers of the national parliament voted for the bill in November 2022.
For six months, former President Muhammadu Buhari did not sign the bill. It was not until Tinubu was sworn into office that Gbaja, then Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief of Staff-designate to the President, got the bill to the President to sign. So, to appease his political boy, Gbaja, Tinubu had to sign it into law.
Ordinarily, apart from issues of existential threats or utmost importance to the success of his regime, the President is wont to wait for his cabinet to be constituted before signing any bill. Who, in his administration, reviewed the bill? Where is the attorney general who gave Tinubu the comfort to sign the bill? What was his government’s position on the matter? What are the immediate plans by his government to implement the law? What are the implications of the enforcement of the law on the revenue of the government? Many questions with no answers.
Nor did the President do any wrong by signing it; he acted within his constitutional authority. Now that Gbaja has moved from the legislative to the executive wing of government as Chief of Staff to the President, he will have more than a passing interest in ensuring that the Act is implemented.
We can interrogate the contents of The Access to Higher Education Act, 2023 (otherwise known as the Students Loan Act) but not throw away the baby with the bath water. No law is perfect; and amendments are not forbidden. But, do we need a students loan scheme? For me, the answer is a categorical YES. I speak from experience.
How I wish there was something like this when I was a university student; I almost certainly would not have gone through the trouble I did. I was an original indigent student. And I had every justifiable reason to drop out of school, but I didn’t. In retrospect, I now know it was God’s invisible hand that held me back.
As a student at the University of Maiduguri, I always watched with envy northern state government officials come to dispense bursaries in hundreds of Naira to each student from their respective states. Even medical students were placed on salary grade level 7 or higher throughout their studies in school.
I struggled through school financially. That is putting it very mildly because I used to tell myself that I would easily qualify as one of the three poorest students on campus. I, however, found a way to somehow mask my poverty level. Some students who were twice wealthier dropped out of school for lack of adequate financial support. For me, I had just one option: complete your undergraduate studies!
I can borrow a leaf from the situation in far away United States of America as far as students loan is concerned. Many black graduates would not have had their degrees if they were unable to access student loans. By the time Barack Obama and Michele, his wife, had graduated from the Harvard Law School, they were indebted to the state by about $120,000 combined. This amount is inclusive of their undergraduate loans. It was not until 2004, the year Barack was elected to the Federal Senate and he signed a $1.9 million book deal that they were able to offset their loans. I can infer that without the students loan, there would not have been a President Obama!
It is within this prism that I endorse the students loan scheme; not because it is a perfect piece of legislation. I have heard of the talk about beneficiaries going to prison if they are unable to pay back their loans two years after graduation. So, how many of the defaulters will government successfully prosecute? I can almost certainly bet that no one will be jailed on account of defaulting on payment; but most beneficiaries will pay back within the stipulated time. And the law does not even state when one should complete payment; it merely mentions that one should commence payment two years after completion of the national youth service program. Can you beat that!
And this loan is not compulsory; it is not a precondition for admission into higher institutions nor is one expected to have collected the loan before one is allowed to graduate. It is for students who truly need it. It is a means by which government can democratize higher education in Nigeria, giving opportunities for students of the very poor to acquire higher education. Nor is one going to be compelled to take the maximum allowable amount, which is not stated in the Act, itself a defect. Thankfully, the body that will be set up to administer and regulate the scheme will be able to set boundaries.
Irrespective of what the future holds, is it not better for me to take the loan and complete my studies than drop out of school? As I mentioned before, some students in my time dropped out of school because of lack of adequate funding. This loan scheme has effectively eliminated that hurdle.
I have a kinsman in a state university. He’s brilliant and a freshman and I already know he’s on a thin line of not completing his university education due finance. Immediately I read the news about the signing of the bill and without having full knowledge of its contents, I sent the news item to him with a note that he should follow the law and its implementation with a view to applying for the loan. I will be happy to have him take the loan to augment the support he is getting and become a graduate in future than drop out of school due to lack of funds.
For crying out loud, this is an interest free loan in a country where interest rates are as high as 30 per cent. In fact, it is close to being free money! I will explain. Imagine a student going into year two and taking N500,000 loan. He or she is to start paying back the same amount six years later. Let us assume it will take this person two years to complete payment. By that time, and at the rate at which our national currency seems to be falling from the sky, the amount would probably have been worth something between N100,000 and N200,000 in real value. That’s a national awoof!
A former colleague of mine who has relocated to Canada and has a child in the university there has been advocating that it is cheaper for parents to take student loans than for them to pay tuition from their pockets; and he is more than able to pay for all his children’s education! I have moved on.
There is this hot potato that no one wants to touch even with a wooden spoon: introduction of tuition in federal universities. One way of improving quality education at the university level is for students to pay tuition to better fund schools. First, let’s leave sentiments on the shelf: is there any state university that is tuition free? Is there any state university with flat tuition for indigene and non indigene students alike? The answer is no. So, why are federal universities still tuition free? Yes, I attended a tuition free university in the 1980s; in fact it was the primary reason I did not attend the then University of Cross River State (now University of Uyo). So, why am I proposing introduction of tuition? Three principle reasons: there were far fewer students and universities for the federal government to cater for; quality of education has dropped compared to what obtained in my time (we don’t want to accept the bitter truth that some of our university graduates are unemployable); and funding is a major factor, the government of Nigeria is broke (those who have ruled us these past years have put us on reverse gear). Hence the need to introduce tuition. Mark my word, our lecturers are very poorly paid even by African standards; and not many intellectually minded people want to take up teaching jobs. Today, a professor cannot save enough money to buy a good car and a home. The principal reason ASUU is regularly on the streets than in classrooms is because of lack of adequate funding of universities. The federal government has too many universities, in some cases two in a state. So, I am convinced that tuition is one way (certainly not the only way) to help improve quality in our higher institutions.
Make no mistake, I am one for a very literate society. The benefits of having such a society are too obvious to detain us here. And that is why I am advocating that education at the primary and secondary levels in Nigeria must be free, compulsory, and qualitative. It is only when we have such basic education that one can decide to either progress to the university or do something else.
The reason why we churn out half baked and unemployable graduates is that the base (primary and secondary school education) is shaky. If you have missed it at the secondary school level, you have missed it as far as quality education is concerned. Only very few people with poor quality education at secondary school level make it at university level.
So, governments at all tiers must invest heavily at the primary and secondary levels free of charge while students who still want to further their education should be made to pay tuition at post secondary level. Where a student is unable to fund his or her university education, the students loan scheme becomes a fall back program. Enough said.
Esiere is a former journalist
