A pro-democracy group in Abia State, the Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD), has criticized the two chambers of the National Assembly Education Committees for excluding South-East universities from the disbursement of loans to students across the 19 tertiary institutions under the recently launched Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
The group expressed concern over the silence maintained by the education committees of both chambers of parliament regarding the deliberate omission of the South-East from the loan scheme.
This was contained in a statement issued on Monday by the group’s Executive Director, Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, and made available to newsmen.
According to the statement, the group finds it worrisome and regrettable that the only legislative intervention so far has come from the Southeast National Assembly caucus, even though the intervention of the whole house or the education committee of either chamber could have given the issue a national appeal, providing assurance to the people, particularly student applicants from the region, that there was no sinister plot to marginalize, exclude, or relegate them, as has been the case in the past.
The statement reads: “FENRAD recalls that during the Jonathan presidency, the Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme for Innovations and Development (PRESSID) was launched to place qualified first-class graduates of the nation on scholarship abroad, who were to be absorbed back into Nigeria’s cadre, forming the potential drivers and agents of development.
“Sadly for the region, when the Buhari presidency took office in 2015, the president stopped the scheme because the North was allegedly not adequately represented in the program. This was how Nigeria jettisoned competence for a parochial pursuit.
“FENRAD recalls that a majority of those affected by the scrapping of PRESSID were South Easterners who had already secured admission to further their studies in universities abroad. Had the criteria for qualification been based on catchment or quota, perhaps the scheme would not have been revoked.
“Following the unceremonious end of PRESSID, another tertiary education policy was inaugurated under Buhari, this time under the name: ‘Education for Change; Ministerial Plan 2018-2022.’ Under this policy, 10 specialized universities were built by the federal government across the thirty-six states in Nigeria in 2021, with none sited in the Southeast.
“This exclusion was later mitigated by the claim that the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), was to benefit from an ongoing federal government upgrade. Not much has been said about this upgrade years later.
“FENRAD also regrets that some universities in the Southeast have yet to complete their verification to enable them to have full access to NELFUND, with some Southeast universities like Enugu State University of Technology (ESUT), which did complete their verification, still experiencing technical glitches for weeks until Friday of last week when this matter had already dominated all news platforms.
“Also concerning is the fact that of the over 27,000 students who have benefited from the Fund so far, none are from the Southeast, as alleged in the caucus’ release cited by the Foundation in the Punch Newspaper of today (August 26, 2024).
“This, if proven to be true, further raises the question of whether the policy is inclusion-driven. Given that there are students from the Southeast region attending the listed institutions who may be indigent Nigerian students or from underprivileged backgrounds, why were they missing from the list, as alleged in the caucus’ release?
“The Foundation is not unaware of previous exclusionary practices and, therefore, calls on the federal government to ensure that students and schools from the region benefit from the scheme. This, the Foundation says, is essential to addressing gaps in education, as many Southeast households are in need of funds for tertiary education.
“Already, the Southeast, like other regions, is expected to contribute to the scheme, since federal revenue-generating agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigeria Customs, Nigeria Immigration Service, and the EFCC are remitting money to the Fund.
“It is common knowledge that businesses registered or domiciled in the Southeast are taxed by the named agencies, with VAT and other taxes coming from the region, so leaving the region out is unacceptable.
“Again, it should be a concern to federal lawmakers, especially as some members are already canvassing people in the region and promoting the narrative that the current APC-led federal government is pro-Southeast.
“The Foundation challenges federal lawmakers, particularly those who have recently been pontificating about how the president and the APC are acting in the interest of the Southeast.
“FENRAD calls for mass education to enlighten the region about the need to access all federal government packages, whether grants, palliatives, or other intervention and support programs. The region cannot afford to exclude itself again.”