Leadership of the renowned pan African students’ movement, The Progressive Students Movement (PSM), Nigeria Chapter has hailed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the successes recorded by his administration in its first 1 year in office.
The president of the group, Comrade Ambassador Bestman Okereafor, gave the commendation in a statement he shared with journalists yesterday.
He said it is important to commend the efforts of the president on national defence and internal security.
According to the statement, “Information show that our gallant military troops have succeeded in neutralising 9,303 terrorists/criminals, including degenerated kingpins such as Damina, Dangote, Kachalla Azarailu and Boderi among others
“This is apart from the arrest of 6,998 and the rescue of 4,641 hostages, among other achievements.
“Another key achievement of Mr. President in the last year was the signing of the Access to Higher Education Act, 2023, into law on June 12, 2023.
“This law enables indigent students to access interest-free loans for their educational pursuits in any Nigerian tertiary institution, a move considered as a fulfillment of one of his campaign promises to liberalize the funding of education”.
“However, we call on school managements to be accountable and transparent by ensuring that students’ data are promptly uploaded to the NELFUND site to enable students to access the loan.
“We call on NELFUND to ensure the principle of federal character is upheld; all regions must have a fair share regardless of state, religion, and tribe.
“We also call on the government to consider paying both the academic and non-academic staff unions their outstanding emoluments to avoid elongation of the academic year, which may further complicate the student loan plans.
“We have seen a situation where ASUU went on strike for eight months under the last administration.
“We also caution school management to halt any plans of hiking school fees because of the student loan, as it will be vehemently resisted.”