The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Bola Tinubu, Temitope Ajayi, has disclosed that Southerners are responsible for their low involvement in the student loan scheme of the federal government.
Temitope Ajayi said Northerners are less critical, unlike Southerners who prefer to find fault and engage in “mindless” criticism of government programmes.
Ajayi stated this while reacting to criticism of the student loan beneficiaries, published on Thursday, by the Nigerian Education Laon Fund (NELFUND).
According to NELFUND’s report, over 27,000 students have benefitted from the student loan programme, across 19 federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
OsunDailyNG analysis of the report showed most of the beneficiaries are Northerners, a few from South West and South-South, while no school or student has benefitted from the South East region.
Though NELFUND explained why no South East student nor school appeared in the beneficiaries list, many Nigerians still accuse the policy of favouring the North more than South.
On his X handle, on Thursday, Ajayi stated, “In making a very valid and reasonable argument for why there are currently more beneficiaries of the students’ loan in northern universities than in the southern part, we southerners are more interested in finding faults and engaging in mindless criticism of the process involved in government programmes rather than finding out the benefits. We need to do better and take full advantage of government initiatives.”
