Just like it rejected the students’ loan scheme introduced by the administration of President Bola Tinubu, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected the government’s newly introduced Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund (TISSF), a loan scheme for lecturers and other university staff.
In a statement by its president, Christopher Piwuna, a professor, ASUU noted that its members are already neck-deep in debt and do not need additional loans but a fix for their earnings as contained in the draft renegotiated with the government.
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“NEC considered this policy of the government and decisively rejected the proposition requesting ASUU to write a letter for its members to access the loan,” the statement said.
“What we need now is for the government to sign our renegotiated agreement, which will improve our purchasing power and decrease our reliance on debts from cooperative societies.”
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Instead of providing loans to the lecturers, ASUU asked the government to pay the workers the three-and-a-half months’ worth of salaries withheld from 2022.
The previous government under the late Muhammadu Buhari had declared a ‘No work, No Pay’ policy during the union’s eight-month strike. Mr Tinubu paid four of the eight months’ salaries in 2024, but the union maintained it needed to be paid in full.
“The government should use the money set aside for the loans to defray our withheld salaries,” it said.
ASUU also advised its members to stay away from the loans to focus on their legitimate entitlements, noting that the loan is a ‘bait’.
It noted that the loan will incapacitate university-based cooperative societies and perpetually enslave their members.
“The obvious implication is that after deducting the union dues, NHIS, pension contribution, and maybe your co-operative deductions, nothing would be left for the family,” it added.
How ASUU rejected student loans
Meanwhile, ASUU had also rejected the federal government’s loan scheme for students.
ASUU had cautioned against the law while it was still at the National Assembly, way before the election of Mr Tinubu, who signed the law.
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ASUU constantly rejected the bill, arguing it is a guise for the government to introduce tuition to Nigerian public universities, hike fees, and neglect its responsibility for funding the institutions.
When it was passed and signed into law by President Tinubu shortly after he assumed office, the union continued to speak against it, and even though the law granted it a seat at the board of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), which manages and disburses funds for the student loans, ASUU declined membership.
