The All-Africa Students’ Union has hailed President Bola Tinubu for signing the Students’ Loan Bill, saying the scheme would be a huge relief to its Nigerian members and a model to others.
Speaking at a press conference to herald the 2023 African Students Day, AASU President, Osikenyi Osisiogu, said the Tinubu-led administration must ensure more efficient and equitable use of public expenditure by governments of Africa on education.
This, he said, would help to generate significant room for finding new funding sources.
“We are excited to identify with the haste Tinubu is in to ‘renew our hope’ that Nigeria shall indeed assume prominently her role as ‘Big Brother’ in Africa and thank him immensely for the Student Loan Bill that received his presidential assent,” Osisiogu said.
“We are confident that alternative solutions at the level of innovative financing tools could be found and implemented across the continent through the private economic sector, public-private partnerships which could contribute to the financing of education by investing majority of their corporate social responsibility spending on education.”
According to him, fuel subsidy thieves, Nigeria refineries’ turn-around consultants and unpatriotic modular refineries operators as well as other competitors who are feeling threatened by the coming onstream of Dangote Refinery are warned not to incur the wrath of students in the continent whose future had already been mortgaged by these diabolic rent seekers
Osisiogu also lauded Dangote Group for the inauguration of the 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery, which it said would positively impact Africa by serving as catalyst for the continent’s accelerated economic growth and development.
He said, “We call on governments of Africa and other stakeholders to continue to give their unalloyed and pragmatic support to Dangote.
“Africa’s private sector has in recent years been rising up to the occasion of the need for economic growth and industrial self-reliance in Africa by making strides in the third and fourth industrial revolution eras. We must continue to emphasise the nexus between education and industry as the former must lead the latter”
The group sought solution to campus insecurity especially as occasioned by attacks on education institutions in parts of Africa and called on the African Union to integrate campus safety into the Silencing the Guns campaign and as well develop a comprehensive policy on proactive campus safety support operations for Africa countries to adopt.
It bemoaned cases of wanton student rights abuses on the continent, saying, “It is on this note that we demand release of all student leaders on the continent “arrested and detained” on sole basis of their activism, fight for social justice and advocacy for better Student welfare/education system in Africa”.
Osisiogu said that this year’s African Students Day holding in Addis Ababa also sought
promotion of children’s rights including access to education, lamenting, “There are about 100millions African Children unable to access Education in 2023”.
