The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has outrightly rejected the recently launched Tertiary Institution Staff Support Loan by the Federal Government, describing the initiative as deeply insulting to the intelligence of university staff and a calculated mockery of the Nigerian tertiary education system.
The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Education, introduced an interest-free loan scheme offering up to ₦10 million to university employees. The scheme was pitched as a move to boost staff welfare, aid professional development, and provide financial relief. It includes a one-year grace period and a repayment window of up to five years.
However, addressing a press conference in Uyo on Monday, Dr. Ikechuku Igwenyi, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUU’s Calabar zone and a senior lecturer in Biochemistry at Ebonyi State University, dismissed the scheme as a mere distraction from more pressing and unresolved issues facing the sector.
ASUU’s Calabar zone includes eight institutions: University of Calabar, University of Uyo, Ebonyi State University, Abia State University, Cross River State University, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, and the University of Education and Entrepreneurship, Akamkpa, among others.
Dr. Igwenyi criticized the government’s approach, questioning how an administration that still operates on a 17-year-old salary structure—unchanged since 2009 despite being due for renegotiation in 2012—could suddenly offer loans to financially distressed workers instead of fixing their compensation.
He stated, “Each time ASUU pushes for dialogue and constructive engagement, the government responds with tactics of distraction—whether through the creation of new renegotiation panels, imposition of systems like IPPIS, tokenistic salary awards that bypass collective bargaining, or half-hearted palliatives. The latest of these is the so-called staff support loan, which we consider the peak of ridicule.”
Dr. Igwenyi pointed out the government’s failure to honor agreements, clear arrears, or remit third-party deductions dating back nearly a year. He described the administration’s behavior as deceptive and disingenuous, accusing it of entering dialogues it never intended to honor.
He asked, “How can a government that owes university workers suddenly expect them to take loans under a vague and undefined repayment structure? How does it make sense to impose staff unions as guarantors for loans they had no hand in initiating? What salary will even support the repayment?”
He also condemned the funding priorities of the government, questioning why the funds for the loan scheme weren’t used to pay owed salaries and improve wages instead. According to him, trapping workers in debt while failing to address legitimate demands is both cruel and irresponsible.
Dr. Igwenyi likened the new loan scheme to the student loan program (NELFUND), calling both exploitative mechanisms that burden students and now their parents. “No well-paid worker borrows money to feed their family,” he said, “except in conditions of manufactured poverty like ours.”
He concluded with a firm rejection of the loan scheme, calling it a “poisoned chalice.” ASUU, he warned, would no longer waste resources attending unproductive meetings. The union’s next scheduled engagement with the Federal Government, set for August 28, 2025, would be its final attendance unless meaningful progress is made.