The Students Loan Act, signed into law by Nigerian president Bola Ahmed Tinubu in June, is a stepping-stone to introducing university tuition fees in many Nigerian universities. The introduction of fees will disproportionately hit the poorest students, who are also less able to access the loans. Socialist Students stands in solidarity with students and activists in Nigeria fighting against the marketisation of higher education. We condemn the Tinubu government’s continued attacks on Nigerian youth, workers and poor population, and call for a mass workers’ political alternative that can transform Nigeria along socialist lines.
We publish here a report of a recent meeting hosted by the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), which is a campaign set up by socialists in Nigeria fighting for high-quality, free education. Socialist Students members attended the meeting, bringing solidarity from Britain, where university students have also been at the sharp-end of fees, loans and marketisation.
Education Rights Campaign activist
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) organised a hybrid meeting on 22 July to address the recent Students Loan Act in Nigeria, introduced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, and the wave of fee hikes in public universities. ERC is an educational group formed by the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) – CWI Nigeria – campaigning for free and quality education in Nigeria.
The meeting’s attendance included socialists, students’ union officers and activists, and Nigerian students in Britain. The speakers also included officials of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) – the most radical trade union in Nigeria, members of DSM and ERC, representatives from Socialist Students and the Socialist Party in England and Wales.
Some of the speakers explained how the Students Loan Act is clearly an attempt to introduce tuition fees in public universities. Until now tuition fees have been officially non-existent, but the authors of the Act have stated that the loans are meant to cater for tuition fees, which by direct implication suggests more burden for the already impoverished students and parents in Nigeria.
In addition, the numerous conditions attached to the loans suggest a vast majority of students from poor backgrounds would not be able to access them, and it exposes the insincerity of the new Tinubu-led government. The ERC calls for a vehement opposition of the loan act and argues for student grants instead to support the studying and living expenses of students.
The wave of fee hikes across campuses in Nigeria formed another part of the discussion with the most recent being the hike in fees by University of Lagos by over 400%. Plans to increase fees in Unity Secondary Schools across the country have also been announced, and parents who have voiced their opposition to it have had their children expelled from school. Attendees of the meeting concluded rightly that these policies and the planned introduction of tuition fees are in line with the government’s agenda to shirk its responsibility of funding education as a social service, but rather, it wants to commercialise it.
The effect of these policies, if not fought against, would be a massive drop out of students and job losses for education workers. Already, the enrolment of students into departments in the Lagos State University has dwindled significantly after a 300% fee hike was implemented ten years ago. Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto State also recently had to postpone its examinations because a huge number of students were unable to pay fees.
Evidently, the commercialisation of education has failed all over the world, and Pippa Evans from Socialist Students in London spoke on how the cost-of-living crisis has impacted students in Britain, and how the student loan policy in place has not ameliorated the situation. About 11% of students in Britain now have to use food banks and 18% cannot afford necessary learning materials. University lecturers in Britain have also been forced to take various strike actions as members of the University and College Union (UCU) demand better working conditions.
The plight of Nigerian students in the UK was also highlighted. Tinubu’s policy on exchange rate unification has meant that the students suddenly have to grapple with the nightmare of sourcing more funds to be able to convert their money into pound sterling to offset their school fees.
It was agreed that all of the aforementioned policies of the capitalist Tinubu-led administration are attacks on public education in Nigeria. It requires an urgent coordinated action of students, parents and education workers, with solidarity from activists, civil society coalitions, and the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, to organise mass resistance against government attacks.
Financial donations and pledges were made at the meeting, with a plan to commence mobilisation across campuses and begin a nationwide campaign against the student loan and fee hikes. An appeal for solidarity from all unions and sections of the working masses was made, including the Nigerian diaspora, in Britain specifically.
The wave of fee hikes and commercialisation of education are just a few out of the anti-working class and poor policies launched by the Tinubu-led administration (see opposite). This is why the ERC also believes in the need for the working and poor people to organise for a mass workers’ political alternative that can transform Nigeria along socialist lines, by utilising the enormous resources of the country to provide free and quality education and jobs for the teeming youth who make up the largest chunk of the country’s vast population.
Socialist Students 