By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Atiku Abubakar has vowed to review the Nigerian Education Loan Fund NELFUND policy and provide debt forgiveness for qualifying Nigerian students, dismissing as “dishonest” President Bola Tinubu’s attempt to present the scheme as proof that education has become more affordable under his administration.
Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to the former vice president, Phrank Shaibu, said in a statement on Tuesday evening that his response was to Tinubu’s overnight post on X, in which the president attacked Atiku’s economic positions without mentioning him by name.
Shaibu said Tinubu’s invocation of NELFUND as a defence against Atiku’s proposal to cut the cost of energy was disingenuous, arguing that the President had first driven up the cost of education before presenting loans as a rescue package. “Celebrating NELFUND as proof that education has become affordable under your government is like setting school fees on fire and then boasting that you lent students a bucket of water. What exactly is the wisdom in presiding over dramatic increases in school fees in some institutions, only to turn around and celebrate loans as the solution?”, he queried.
He described the arrangement as “witchcraft economics,” stating: “You make education more expensive, lend students money to survive the increase, and then demand applause for the rescue. That is not affordability. It is witchcraft economics: create the burden with one hand, offer debt with the other, and demand applause for the intervention.”
According to Shaibu, Atiku has already conducted a review of the existing student-loan framework and does not believe young Nigerians should begin their working lives under the weight of education debt.
“His approach will reduce the underlying cost of education and, after review, provide forgiveness for qualifying student debts so that young Nigerians can graduate with hope rather than repayment burdens. Education should open doors, not mortgage the future”, said Shaibu.
He insisted that a loan, by its nature, could not be mistaken for a scholarship, and that the true measure of any education policy was whether families could keep their children in school without being forced into borrowing.
According to him, government should not “parade the loan itself as evidence that the system is working” once the underlying cost of education has become prohibitive for ordinary families.
He further accused the presidency of deploying scare tactics against Nigerian students and workers by suggesting that Atiku’s proposed energy intervention, targeted at Nigerian crude supplied for domestic refining, would somehow undermine NELFUND, cut salaries or reverse the minimum wage. “If your government has the arithmetic, Bola, publish it. Show Nigerians, line by line, how a transparently budgeted subsidy tied to Nigerian crude and domestic refining suddenly empties NELFUND or workers’ pay packets”, he demanded.
Shaibu maintained that Atiku’s position was the direct opposite of what the presidency had claimed, insisting that reducing the cost of energy and transportation would leave workers’ salaries and students’ upkeep going further rather than less.
“Reduce the cost of energy so that salaries buy more. Reduce transport costs so that less of a worker’s wage disappears merely getting to work. You cannot make life painfully expensive, push students towards debt to survive the consequences, and then frighten those same students that cheaper fuel will take their loans away”, he declared.
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