Ekiti Community Leader Backs Tinubu on Students’ Loan

Gbenga Sodeinde In Ado Ekiti

A Lagos-based industrialist and  community leader in Ekiti state Dr. Olusegun Aderemi, has commended President Bola Tinubu on the approval of Student loan recently signed into law,  adding that the development would  reduce social vices and curb untoward tendencies among the youths.

 Aderemi, who is the Atayero of Aramoko Ekiti, in Ekiti West Local Government area of Ekiti state, spoke  in his country home  yesterday at an event to celebrate his birthday anniversary. He tasked the present administration in the country to institute modalities that will remove the hard effects of fuel subsidy and  added that the masses are suffering due to the subsidy removal.

“I  thank God for the opportunity so far  and for giving me good life  when I say good life, it’s not about luxury of life , I am talking about  God’s protection and the opportunity to know what is right and where I belong to. For the past  three years ,I have made up my mind that since I belong to this community, everything about me is about this community. I will be celebrating my birthday in this community, I pray to Almighty  God to give me the opportunity to celebrate many more years.“

On the new President in power with number of decisions taken so far,  among which are suspension of some key  government officials in the country  for crucial investigations,  Aderemi said: “This is about the first time in our own lifetime we would have a true democrat  becoming the president of the Federal republic of Nigeria in person of President Bola Tinubu.

“All our agitations, aspirations as far as democracy  and dividends is concerned ,this is the time we would have it, because all democrats are known for giving back dividends of democracy  that’s how it’s happening in a lot of places where there is democrat and i want to believe  that Nigeria  will not be an exception.

We are on the right path ,there is no doubt that our country is a developing country , the democratic government we have had in the past  tried their best , now, this true democrat will give us what we want  as far as democracy is concerned. As a direct descendent of Oduduwa, I believe that we would get what we want ,this is our time.”

“Talking  about the actions  the present government has taken, I want to believe that action  is in the right direction, as far as fuel subsidy is concerned, the removal of fuel subsidy is not the handiwork of this present government, the fuel subsidy has been removed by the last administration,  just patching it for relief, of course it wa’s made public that by the end of June, there won’t be fuel subsidy , knowing full well that by May 29 they are gone. The present government has actually leveraged on that path to make the pronouncement on the day of the inauguration. 

“Subsidy is a fraud that has been identified, it has been known for a very long time, because of the perpetrators, the high powerful people behind it ,they were not able to control it. It ought to have been controlled at the right time.  It wasn’t intentional to be a fraud  but somehow along the line, it became a total fraud. Any responsible government would have just turned it around, there are different ways of  subsidizing.  Subsidy is a way of cushioning effect of hardship on people, food,  transport also can be subsidised. 

“There are some societies where citizens don’t even pay for transport ,that is on subsidy ,in some societies, cost of transportation is reduced drastically  because government decided to subsidize it. But we concentrate our own subsidy on petroleum alone ,making it unreasonable. There are other ways it can be addressed.  The important thing  now is for government to cushion the effect of hardship on masses  such as provision of  good roads by government, subsidized means of transportation and of course minimum wage is outdated, that amount of money is not sustainable.”

On student loan recently signed into law , Aderemi  said: “Whichever way you look at it, education is number one  just as safety is important. If the government is talking about giving loan to people to go and study, it is a right step in the right direction. It will reduce social vices in the country, when people are educated, they will be able to project, and when they are able to project , they will be able to progress and when there is progress, there would be sanity  in all ramification. It is only those that are not educated, that are looking for other means  of survival . “Student loan will give a lot of families opportunity to send their children/wards to schools. There won’t be complain that I cannot go to school because I don’t have money . Government is here to help now to become a better person in the society, and these are the handiwork of a democrat. In the past,  we have  had a lot of government and they never thought about that ,it is a welcome development and would help the society,” he stated.