On Tuesday, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) paid a visit to President Tinubu to express their appreciation for his recent signing of the student loan bill into law on Monday.
The delegation from NANS was led by their national president, Umar Barambu. Following their discussions with the President, Barambu shared with State House correspondents that they respectfully requested the President to reconsider the composition of the special committee responsible for overseeing the newly established Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
Their appeal was centered around the inclusion of student representatives within this committee.
The NANS President said: “We thank the President for the Student Loan Bill.
“We have outlined the clauses that we are not too comfortable with. And part of them is the issue of that board that we mentioned to the president, where we said at least students’ representatives should be captured, and there are some organizations that they put there that, to us, don’t need to be there.
“We gave him an example, most especially the Nigerian Bar Association, ASUU. ASUU has its own microfinance bank running its own affairs without students on its board. So, I don’t think it’s wise for us to allow them to be inside our own board because it is purely students.
“We are the major stakeholders of that bank. So I don’t think allowing them to be there is good. Not only them, but we also mentioned a lot of people that they should remove and put more of student-oriented organization.”
In response, the President promised to consider the requests of the NANS leaders but urged the student body to ensure unity among its members across the country to achieve more.
“You have to promote unity and stability among each other. You have to employ democratic means in your programs and elections. I have to say, anyone who is unable to accept and celebrate a free and fair election, does not deserve the joy of victory,” Tinubu said.
The President stressed that poverty should not prevent any Nigerian from obtaining quality education at the highest levels.
Therefore, he pledged that his administration would commit more resources to the education sector to ensure that every Nigerian child, regardless of their background, has access to quality education.
“Poverty should not prevent anybody, any child, including the daughter or son of a wood seller, ‘boli’ (plantain) seller or yam seller from attaining their highest standard of education, to eliminate poverty,” Tinubu said when he received the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students at the State House, Abuja.
“If we all believe that education is the greatest weapon against poverty, then we have to invest in it. If you eliminate poverty from one family, you can carry the rest of the weight,” the President said.
He thanked the students for supporting the removal of subsidy on petrol, explaining the reasons behind the decision and the need to curb smuggling.
“I’m glad you understand the reason for the subsidy removal. We were at a point where Nigeria tried to draw water from a dry well and that is no longer acceptable and we equally must not continue to service the smugglers because they used to take our tankers and Premium Motor Spirit across the borders. We will put our money where our mouth is,” he said.
