A former Director-General of National Orientation Agency, NOA, Idi Farouk, has commended the Federal Government for the impact of Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, on Nigerians.

Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Sunday, Mr Farouk described NELFUND as a transformative initiative that had brought great relief to both students and their parents.

Recall that the federal government had established NELFUND in 2024 to provide loans to students in tertiary institutions across the country.

The establishment of the fund followed the passage of the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill by the senate and its eventual signing into law by President Bola Tinubu.

Mr Farouk said that the agency had significantly reduced the financial burden on families and empowered young Nigerians to pursue higher education with ease.

“ I never knew about NLEFUND until I saw Mr Akintunde Sawyerr, the head of the agency, speaking about the organisation on a television programme recently.

“I must commend Tinubu for establishing NELFUND; the agency needs to blow its trumpet so loud for people, especially poor and brilliant children at the grassroots desirous to acquire higher education, to know about it.

“I was highly impressed with this initiative and Mr Sawyerr gave me the impression that he is a round peg in a round hole because he was on top of his game.

“Most parents don’t know about the agency, but the students could apply and get the loan and yet, tell lies to their parents, and so for me, I think more enlightenment will make more people know about the programme,’’ he said.

He said that there were other laudable programmes domiciled in the ministry of education and other organisations which Nigerians were not aware of.

On the assessment of President Tinubu after two years in office, Mr Farouk said that rather than assess the president, he would prefer to comment on his appointees.

“Mr President chose people in various departments of governance, ministers, director-generals and managing directors. I will rather take these people one by one than to assess the president himself.

“For instance, one might not like the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, but you can’t take it away that he is among the best performing ministers of the Tibunu administration.

“Since Wike came on board, it is like the FCT has never had a minister. And when you go through our airports, you can equally say that the Aviation Minister, Mr Festus Keyamo, SAN, is doing wonderfully well.

“But that cannot be said of the minister of defence or the police affairs ministry, and I don’t even know what to say about the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria with the ways our naira is tumbling and the inflation rate.

“When you come to federal roads generally, I think there is serious problem because government is not performing in that area.

“For instance, when you visit Kaduna State, you need a human doctor and your vehicle also needs a vehicle doctor because of the poor state of the road.

“And the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, I cannot assess its importance to our economy, neither can I condemn it, but the only thing I can condemn was how the contract was awarded because the bidding process wasn’t be said to be open for big construction firms to participate.

“I know too that some people might condemn the contract too because they don’t understand the benefits to ordinary Nigerians at this moment; until when the project must have come on stream, may be after us, people will know the importance.

“Recently we travelled to Egypt; my wife, my child and myself. We paid 63 US dollars to a tour guide for us to visit the Pyramids, but when Pharaoh Khufu who built the pyramids about 4, 600 years ago was building them, some people might be asking what the importance was.

“The pyramids today are revenue earners to the country and so that might sometime be the case of the coastal highway,’’ he said.

The director-general, however, noted that some organisations were actually impacting the lives of Nigerians positively, but were not informing the people about their activities.

“I think that National Orientation Agency is equally doing well and my assessment of these organisations is devoid of any sentiment because my position is purely to encourage those performing to enable them to do better, while those that are not doing well should sit up,” he said.

According to him, the essence of appointing them to various positions by the president is for them to help deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians.

He, therefore, called on Tinubu to carry out a comprehensive review of all his appointees and remove those who were not performing.

“I feel Mr President should rejig his cabinet in order to bring better hands to help him deliver in all segments of his government,’’ he said.

On the conferment of national honours on some Nigerians by Tinubu during the recent democracy day, Farouk said it was within the president’s power to do so.

“It doesn’t matter at what point he gives the award, it is the prerogative of Mr President to give awards to who, in his opinion, deserve them,” he said.

NAN