The Congress of University Academics (CONUA) has hailed the students’ loan initiative of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.
The union discloses this during the meeting of Council of National Officers of the union led by the President of the union, CONUA’s president, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, said the loan would provide opportunity for the less privileged to have access to university education.
Speaking further, he said being a new program, there would be some grey areas of the bill that would need to be reworked, saying CONUA was ready to partner with the government to make the students’ loan scheme a success.
The meeting also discussed various salient issues about the state of affairs and welfare of the Nigerian academics and resolved that the government should as a matter of urgency attend to the issue of salary upgrade and conditions of service of members of the academics and other sectors of the economy.
The union also saluted the courage of the government to remove the subsidy on petrol which it described as the right step at this moment of Nigeria’s development.
It urged the government to fulfill its promise of using the proceeds of the subsidy to develop infrastructure in the education sector, health, roads, security and others.
Members of CONUA therefore congratulate President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima on their inauguration as President and Vice President respectively. CONUA looked forward to working closely with the administration to realise its vision for the tertiary education sub-sector.
“As a union, we are aware of the Renewed Hope agenda of this administration, we also acknowledge the decision ab initio to take the very tough actions required to engineer fundamental changes in the polity.
“We equally appreciate the commitment to take the actions necessary to ameliorate the temporary painful effects of the inescapable tough decisions. CONUA believes in the capacity of the administration to provide the visionary leadership for the sustainable, progressive development of all facets of the nation.
“We therefore assure of our readiness to partner with this administration by generating and making accessible ideas and suggestions that will take, in particular, our educational system from its current state to a pedestal that we shall all be proud of. “Together, we will work to engender renewed hope in Nigeria and create the conditions for the fulfllment of the noble aspirations of the citizenry.”