By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has kicked against the idea of a student loan scheme given the state of the economy and the country’s high unemployment rate.
ASUU President, Chris Piwuna, stated this on Monday, during the Orientation/Leadership Training at the ASUU, Niger Delta University (NDU) Branch in Amassoma, Bayelsa State, with the theme, ‘Understanding the Principles of the Union.’
Piwuna stressed that the money being managed and disbursed by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) should be given as grants and not loans if it is meant to make the universities
run better.
He also faulted the operations of NELFUND, querying the amount spent by the agency on personnel costs in just a few months of operation.
Piwuna said, “We have told the government that we do not support loans in such a depressed economy. In an economy where the unemployment rate is high, families can’t feed themselves,
so where do they want them to repay the loan?
“If they truly want to give them money, they should come out clean. Where are the jobs that will enable them to repay the loans? If the money is meant to make the universities run better, they
should be given as grants, not loans.
“Recently, some of the reports coming from NELFUND make us think we are right, when an organisation that is less than a year old and has less than a hundred staff is spending N14 billion
on personnel, when even this university that has over 1,000 staff can’t spend that amount in a year, including building of structures.”
During the training, the union maintained that it is not going back on its planned two-week nationwide warning strike if the Federal Government does not respond to its demands at the expiration of a two-week ultimatum on Sunday, October 13.
Piwuna maintained that if the Federal Government does not accede to the union’s demands on or before October 13, it will go on with the planned warning strike after which it will decide when
to embark on an indefinite and comprehensive strike.
“The warning strike has been issued and we are not meeting to discuss that again as a union because our position has been taken, and by midnight of Monday, we will embark on a two-week warning strike, after which we will meet after the expiration to decide when to begin an
indefinite and comprehensive strike action.
“The issues still remain the same, re-negotiation of our 2009 documents is still lingering over the years, and we want Nigerians to know that we have been talking and the strike action is coming
after several years of negotiations and we are not just jumping on a strike.
“We have given the government enough time on this particular issue. Just imagine they gave us three weeks to get back to them and never did till this moment. Nigerians must always look at
the actions of the government that have always pushed us to such actions,” he said.
Recall that the union had issued the two-week ultimatum last week and requested the Federal Government to address unresolved issues, including the signing and implementation of the renegotiated 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement.
