*NANS Demands Proper Accountability
FOLLOWING lingering controversy over alleged mismanagement of Federal Government’s student loan scheme, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, on Tuesday, May 6, met with vice chancellors and heads of tertiary institutions fingered for misappropriating funds disbursed through the scheme.
Issues on the table for discusion include training of bursars and heads Information Communication Technology (ICT) units of the affected institutions to ensure the smooth implementation of the programme, as well as launch a compliance tracking webpage to foster transparency and accountability in loan disbursement.
The scheme came under public scrutiny following allegations by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) that some institutions, in collaboration with banks, have been making fraudulent deductions from disbursements.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), last week, saying its preliminary probe revealed a gap between amount released by NELFUND and that acctually received by the benefiting students.
But it later recanted, saying no funds were missing.
All these led to a protest on Monday, May 5, by students, under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), who blocked the everbusy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The protest caused a temporary disruption to traffic before being called off, following intervention by the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Ogunlowo, who engaged with the demonstrators and appealed for calm.
The students, led by the NANS Ogun Joint Campus Committee Chairman, Gabriel Abiola, decried irregularities in the disbursement of the funds, noting: “We are demanding proper accountability in the student loan programme.
“The issue is affecting Nigerian students, especially students from my state. Many of our students applied for the loan and it has been approved, but it has not been disbursed to them, and they are not allowing some of the students to write the exam.”
According to him: “We raised the alarm over the issue about a month ago, asking the ICPC to set up an investigative committee, and we were aware that the ICPC disclosed that out of the over N100billion disbursed, only N28billion was released to the students.
“We demand that President Bola Tinubu gears up the ICPC and EFCC to investigate the matter. The ICPC should release the names of the 51 institutions it has identified, so that we will know the enemies of Nigerian students.”
He warned that protests would persist if authorities failed to act, saying: “We have sent our message, and they are all aware. If they fail to yield to our demands, we will not hesitate to continue with the protest.”
