President Bola Tinubu has promised to commit more resources to the education sector to ensure that every Nigerian child, regardless of their background, has access to quality learning.
Tinubu disclosed this when he met with the leadership of National Association of Nigeria Student (NANS) at the State House in Abuja.
Tinubu noted that education remains the greatest weapon against poverty hence the need for greater investment in the sector.
“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. If you eliminate poverty from one family, you can carry the rest of the weight,” Tinubu said.
Meanwhile, the NANS delegation led by the body’s National President, Umar Barambu, urged Tinubu to review the constitution of the special committee that would oversee the new Nigerian Education Loan Fund to include student representatives.
Barambu advised the President to remove the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) from the Student Loan Board as it is only meant for students’ welfarism.
“ASUU has its own microfinance bank running their own affairs without students on their 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,” Barambu said.
“We are the major stakeholders of that bank. So I don’t think allowing them to be there is good. Not only them, we mentioned a lot of people that they should remove and put more of student-oriented organisation,” the NANS president added.
