When President Bola Tinubu signed the 2023 Student Loan Act into law, it appeared like the answer to a lingering prayer, but the piece of legislation, which was prepared by the ninth National Assembly, has divided opinions among Nigerians since it became law on June 12, 2023.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has kicked against it, Workers and Youth Solidarity Network (WYSN) rejected it as well, and economists have expressed concerns over it.
When FIJ took to the streets of Lagos to meet low-income earners, we found that some of them did not yet buy the idea. It just did not sit right with them.
Chief among the talking points has been the requirements for obtaining a loan as stipulated by the act. You can’t apply for the loan if your family earns up to ₦500,000 a year.
For the federal government to loan education to a prospective student for a period of years, the prospect must first secure admission into a government-established institution, show their family earns no more than ₦499,999.99k annually, and then get guarantors.
These guarantors include a senior civil servant who is closer to retirement than entry level, a lawyer who is either a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) or is eligible to become one, and a judicial officer or justice of peace.
FIJ juxtaposed these requirements against the constitutional requirements to contest for the Office of the President.
According to Section 131 of the 1999 constitution as amended, one only needs to be a Nigerian citizen who is 35 years or older, a member of a political party, and able to convince the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that they can read and write.
It is a rather easier process to qualify to contest for the nation’s top job than it is to qualify for a loan facility to study in any government-established tertiary institution.
FIJ also found that one of the conditions for disqualification from accessing the loan facility was one that was raised against the country’s current president but did not disqualify him from contesting.
A student is disqualified from accessing the loan if he has been convicted of a felony or any offence involving dishonesty or fraud, says the new act.
Going by this provision, if President Tinubu was a prospective student from a family earning below half a million naira annually, he would be ineligible for a loan.
In 1993, Tinubu forfeited $460,000 to the US government as part of a drug-trafficking case.
FIJ later found an earlier ruling in which Olukayode Ariwoola, the current Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), while serving as a Supreme Court justice, declared that forfeiture means “the loss of a right, privilege or property because of a crime”.
While Nigeria’s constitution says such conviction would only prevent one from contesting for office for 10 years, the Student Loan Act is silent on a statute of limitation, meaning, while Tinubu would be able to run for office after 2003, he would never have been able to apply for a student loan even if his family earned no naira a month. (FIJ)
