The Nigerian Students Loan and Me, by Oloye Lekan Alabi

Forty-eight (48) years ago, in March 1976, I obtained a valid one-year student visa from the British Consulate, then sited on the ground floor of AJE HOUSE, Dugbe, Ibadan, capital of the then Western State of Nigeria(please see the 24tn March 1976 student visa on my Nigerian international passport, sent in 1975 to me by the Nigerian Immigration Service(NIS), on Kakawa Street, Lagos, by registered post through the now-defunct Sketch Publishing Company Limited (SPCL), Ibadan’s PMB 5435 at the Dugbe General Post Office, Ibadan). I was then a Reporter/Writer/Reader, Grade 11 with the SPCL.        

On my arrival in London, UK in April 1976, as a private student, I duly complied with one of the instructions of the WESTERN STATE STUDENTS ADVISORY BOARD, which issued me the mandatory letter of approval to travel abroad for further studies and I formally registered at the Nigerian High Commission on Northumberland Street, London. One of the names I saw on the Students Register was that of Mr Fela Ransome-Kuti.          

As a self-sponsored student, I supported myself, like all private students did, with menial jobs, such as an early morning office cleaner/hotel car park attendant and petrol filling station attendant, during short and long vacations.     

In 1977, luck smiled on me, as I was among the successful students/ applicants granted loans by the NIGERIAN STUDENTS LOAN BOARD, introduced to save the necks of poor, private Nigerian students abroad, by the General Olusegun Obasanjo-led Federal Military Government(FMG).                   

Immediately all the formalties, such as filling and signing of forms, endorsement by school authorities, guarantors back in Nigeria etc were completed, we were issued cheques by the NSLB, through our schools. My school, the famous College of Journalism, 62 Fleet Street, London EC4, after deducting the amount owed her by me, paid me the balance sum which I had earlier paid from salaries earned from the menial jobs done by me.                        

The sum refunded by my school to me, made me STOP all the menial jobs immediately, concentrate on my studies, relocate from my one-room apartment on 82, Prince George Road, Stoke Newington, London N16 to a more prestigious 3-bedroom flat on the high-heeled Mare Street, Hampstead, London, NW8, where I married my wife into on 12th August 1978.        

On my final return home, I secured employment with the NIGERIAN TELEVISION, IBADAN (NTV, IBADAN) and gave instructions, through a formal letter, to NTV IBADAN Finance Department to commence the monthly deductions of the NSLB loan from my monthly salaries. I don’t want to mention the unsolicited overtures made to me by some crooked staff at the Surulere Lagos Office of the NSLB that they could “work” on my account with them, thereby jumping the full repayment of my loan. Instead, the NTV, Ibadan, on my insistence, continued the monthly deductions from my salaries to the NSLB, till the total loan was liquidated by me and the NSLB issued me her Certificate of Total Loan Repayment.            

My main objective of this post is to appeal to all lucky loan beneficiaries with the newly-established Nigerian Students Loans Board, just signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to please conform with the loan stipulations of the NSLB and re-pay the loans so obtained by them in full. The loan is NOT a “national cake” for sharing, in the revolting Nigerian sense. As a revolving loan, many poor Nigerian students stand to benefit, like we did. Thank you.

High Chief Alabi is the Maye Olubadan of Ibadanland.