Sir: Most Nigerians were ecstatic when the Students Loan Act was signed into law by the President. The people’s response was not surprising since the usual attitude of the people is to always accept every dummy sold to them by the government hook line and sinker without any critical evaluation due to the sad effect and impact of ignorance.

The terms of the said loan is too stringent and capable of subjecting young graduates to untold sufferings and torture if at the end of their courses, they are unable to secure truly gainful employment. Again, rolling out the said loan scheme is going to be followed very closely by the granting of autonomy to the universities which would mean the introduction of tuition fees in all public tertiary institutions.

The problem that would then arise is that the fees may be too high for most parents to cope with, and then coupled with the fear of trying to avoid trouble by also avoiding the loans, most students will be forced to abandon their studies midway.

Considering even the way things are handled in Nigeria, one can readily predict that the loan scheme will be compromised and hijacked by the usual political parties’ cultures and traditions and it may even become accessible to only card-carrying members of the ruling party which would then be another subtle method of turning Nigeria into a one-party state. All these points duly considered, it is apparent that there is absolutely nothing to cheer about in the new Students’ loan scheme act.

What the Nigerian government is trying to do is to shelve its own commitment to the nation’s youths by passing the burden once again to the masses. All those who have stolen public wealth are all walking free and instead of the government summoning the courage to quiz them and retrieve all the stolen funds which are more than enough to provide free education to all the citizens from the primary to the tertiary, the preferred option is always to put more burdens on the helpless masses who have continued to suffer since Nigeria’s independence up till now.

What exactly are Nigerians supposed to gain from their government if after subsidy removal, education also has to go beyond the reach of the poor? The government should therefore look critically into all these issues and find ways of bringing succour to the people and not aggravate their plight.

• Jide Oyewusi is coordinator of Ethics Watch International, Lagos.