Ifeanyi IbeIn commemoration of the ‘2023 Africa Students Day’ held annually on June 16, the All-Africa Students’ Union has commended President Bola Tinubu for signing the Students’ Loan Bill, saying the scheme will bring great relief to Nigerian members as well as be a model to other African countries.
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In a press release on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti, the President, Osisiogu Osikenyi, called on the Tinubu-led administration to ensure that African governments deploy public resources efficiently and equitably on education.
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He noted that such leadership direction exhibited by Tinubu with the students loan bill will bring about great funding opportunities.
“We are excited to identify with the haste Tinubu is in to ‘renew our hope’ that Nigeria shall indeed assume prominently her role as ‘Big Brother’ in Africa, and thank him immensely for the Student Loan Bill that received his presidential assent,” Osisiogu said.
“We are confident that alternative solutions at the level of innovative financing tools could be found and implemented across the continent through the private economic sector, public-private partnerships which could contribute to the financing of education by investing the majority of their corporate social responsibility spending on education,” he added.
Speaking on those stealing from fuel subsidy, the turn-around maintenance consultants of Nigeria’s refineries’ and the unpatriotic modular refineries’ operators as well as other rivals who are feeling threatened by the coming onstream of Dangote Refinery, Osisiogu warned that they will incur the wrath of African students whose future they are compromising if they don’t desist from these evil ways.
On Dangote Group’s achievements, the union president hailed the public launch of the 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery, noting that it will make excellent impact on Africa by pushing the continent into growth and development fast lane.
Osisiogu further said, “We call on African governments and other stakeholders to continue to give their unalloyed and pragmatic support to Dangote.”
He noted that, “Africa’s private sector has in recent years risen up to the occasion of the need for economic growth and industrial self-reliance in Africa by making strides in the third and fourth industrial revolution eras. We must continue to emphasise the nexus between education and industry as the former must lead the latter.”
The Africa Students Day celebration, with the caption, ‘Back to Addis 2023’, is underway in Ethiopia. The Sixth Congress of the union was held 41 years ago in Addis Ababa where June 16 was declared the “Africa Students Day.”
The event brings together student leaders, education stakeholders, corporate bodies and others to remember the sacrifices of African students in the past such as the “Soweto Uprising.”
Celebrated annually on June 16, the 2023 edition partly focuses on brainstorming to overcome the challenges of the education system in Africa.
The union is using the event to urge political leaders to come up with solutions to insecurity in schools, poor funding and increases in tuition.
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