To be poor should not be a death sentence to ambition. That is the essence of the Access to Higher Education Bill signed into law as one of the first acts of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

It is significant on a number of levels. One, it was one of the major planks of President Tinubu’s campaign promises, and it is cheering that he has converted rhetoric into substance as he appended his signature to the bill. It shows that election promises should not be hifalutin moments on the political calendar but bonds of integrity.

Two, it was a long-running bill initiated ironically by the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila. He is now the chief of staff to the president, and he stood beside the nation’s number one citizen as his autograph turned his dream into law. Gbajabiamila had initiated this bill with persistence since 2016 before he mounted the speaker’s chair. But it never scaled through as the idea of a loan scheme to help indigent students was seen as fanciful by many in the society and even lawmakers. He had reintroduced the bill in 2019 before its clincher in 2022.

The idea gained traction during the presidential campaign, and President Tinubu highlighted it as his favourite campaign promise. So, it is potent that he promptly signed it to law. While it is a sign of legislative brilliance and doggedness on the part of Gbajabiamila, we cannot but reflect on the coincidence of vision and opportunity in the speaker’s efforts and the president’s signature.

Although it is not, in theory, a new idea, this is the first time we have had this law in such a comprehensive and ambitious term accommodating every poor family in the country. It also embraces a time of surging youth population and fiery thirst for education in the country. Even today, the spaces in the universities, colleges of education and polytechnics cannot absorb all the youth who want higher education.

The act challenges an economy of mammoth deficits and long years of waste and corruption as against previous eras when abundance of funds beckoned such an expensive programme. The rigor that characterizes its conception and thought evinces how this country, in spite of its immense financial dry patches, shows that governance in Nigeria as in everywhere else has less to do with plenty than with plenty of imagination.

The funding will derive from a number of apparent honey pots in the system. One, it will gulp one percent of profits from oil sales in the country as well as other mineral resources. It will also take one percent of taxes, levies and duties from the Inland Revenue Service, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), and education endowment funds schemes. It will also tap from public goodwill and patriotism as regards donations, gifts, grants, etc.

The statistics as to how much these sources will chip in have not been published. It might not have been worked out. We expect the research sections of government to make this available. We shall also want a projection of how many students will benefit. These details should be worked out in due course, especially as the programme takes off in September.This sort of programme, because of the priority of integrity, the number and calibre of people involved and the amount of money to defray, calls for not only trusted persons to manage it but it expects the beneficiaries to demonstrate good faith.

The applicant is expected to be poor, and it means the family does not earn more than N500,000 annually. This is intricate given the instability of inflation and the value of the naira. This government probably hopes to stabilise the nation’s currency and rein in inflation. Otherwise, the law might have to be reviewed in this regard in consonance with cost and standard of living.

The board will have such high-profile names as the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as chairman, a secretary selected by the chairman, the ministers of education and finance or their representatives, the auditor-general of the federation. This represents the officials of the government. The civil and other parts of society will sit on the board. They include the chairman of the National Universities Commission, representative of the vice chancellors in the country’s universities, representatives of the rectors of the polytechnics and the provosts of the colleges of education, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

This gives the board a democratic coloration and seems to guarantee accountability and fairness, especially as it limits the tenure of the members to when they hold the various positions that entitle them to be members. It also forecloses any tolerance for convicted felons of dishonesty and fraud or even unsound mind.

There were some outcries online from some youths over the penalties for defaulters and it includes a N500,000 fine or a two-year jail term. Such complaint only derives from those who want to commit the offence. Nigeria is yet to have the sort of database of countries like the United States where student loan can easily be monitored and the culprits punished with measures like garnishment of wages, charging of social security accounts, notification of credit agencies, or loss of tax refunds.

We therefore need good faith from the youth. The idea is that repayment can help swell the funds that will benefit generations after them. It is a sacrifice that requires gratitude, not criminal manoeuvre.

The document betrays a lot painstaking effort to ensure that those who apply are poor, and that they actually are in school. Hence, the board will not sign off on any scholarship unless it is approved by the vice chancellor, rector or provost. And the guarantor must be a recognisable figure like a justice of the peace, an experienced lawyer of not less than 10 years of practice, a civil servant of not less than level 12.

It is also fair on the loanee as they have to breathe after two years of the mandatory National Youth Service Corps scheme before they can start to pay back.

This programme also assumes that, one, there will be good faith from both government and citizens. Two that the economy will handle the storms and provide the atmosphere for the students to pay by clinching jobs or doing fruitful enterprises.

Many boys and girls who have surrendered to criminal orgies such as robbery and banditry can get a new life of dignity and self-worth with an opportunity to get enlightened irrespective of their parents’ class status. It refines youth and energizes our future as a country. Girls who prostitute to pay fees can hold their own against amorous older men, and boys who rob can redirect their drives to cement a good future.

This is not free education but higher education, which, even in the best of countries, is never free, except for a few countries like Germany. We may aspire to that. But this is a good start and we must hug it for its endorsement of a bright future for a troubled generation. Quality education is important, and we must follow this with a programme to make our schools models of learning. Rankings worldwide put our universities in unenviable light.

It is a great programme but it calls for a great zeal from Nigerians and their government.

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