Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the Federal Government’s Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) policy, describing student loans as liabilities and promising to forgive qualifying student debts if elected president in 2027.
Atiku, through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said he would reduce the underlying cost of education rather than rely primarily on loans to make education accessible.
Shaibu disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday while responding to President Bola Tinubu’s criticism of Atiku’s economic proposals ahead of the 2027 general election.
According to him, Atiku believes young Nigerians should not have to begin their careers burdened by education debt.
“The good news for Nigerian students is that Atiku has reviewed the current student-loan policy,” the statement said.
“His approach will reduce the underlying cost of education and, after review, provide forgiveness for qualifying student debts so that young Nigerians can graduate with hope rather than repayment burdens. Education should open doors, not mortgage the future.”
Shaibu accused the Tinubu administration of making education increasingly expensive, providing loans to students to cope with the higher costs and presenting the intervention as evidence of policy success.
“That is not affordability. It is witchcraft economics: create the burden with one hand, offer debt with the other, and demand applause for the intervention,” he said.
“A student loan is not a scholarship. It is a liability.
“The proper test of an education policy is whether ordinary families can educate their children without being pushed into debt merely to keep them in school.”
He argued that increasing dependence on student loans was evidence that the underlying cost of education had become prohibitive.
According to him, government should not present the availability of loans as proof that the education system is working when students increasingly require debt simply to remain in school.
Shaibu also accused the Tinubu administration of using NELFUND as a “shield against” Atiku’s proposal to reduce the cost of living.
He was responding to arguments that Atiku’s proposed targeted and capped production support could affect NELFUND, workers’ salaries and the minimum wage.
“You now want Nigerians to believe that making fuel cheaper will somehow threaten student loans, workers’ salaries and the minimum wage. That is fearmongering dressed up as economics,” Shaibu said.
He described the administration’s position as “fallacious” and challenged the government to publish the calculations behind its claim.
“If your government has the arithmetic, Bola, publish it. Show Nigerians, line by line, how a transparently budgeted subsidy tied to Nigerian crude and domestic refining suddenly empties NELFUND or workers’ pay packets,” he said.
Shaibu said Atiku’s argument for targeted subsidy support was aimed at reducing the cost of living by lowering energy and transportation costs.
He argued that the government could not make living costs more expensive, push students towards borrowing to cope with the consequences and then warn them that cheaper fuel could threaten their loans.
“You cannot make life painfully expensive, push students towards debt to survive the consequences, and then frighten those same students that cheaper fuel will take their loans away,” he said.
“Nor can you tell workers that a policy designed to restore value to their wages will somehow take those wages from them. That is not economic reform. It is scarecrow propaganda built on witchcraft economics.”
The latest exchange is part of an increasingly heated political battle between Atiku’s camp and the Presidency over the government’s economic policies and management of funds saved from the removal of petrol subsidy.
Atiku, who is seeking to challenge the Tinubu administration ahead of the 2027 presidential election, has repeatedly criticised the government’s handling of the economy and called for policies aimed at reducing the cost of living.
Erizia Rubyjeana
Follow us on:
