A young Nigerian, Oladayo Hassan Baruwa, has shared a personal account on Facebook of how the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) reportedly changed the perception of a senior staff member of the University of Ibadan (UI) towards President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
Baruwa, in the Facebook post, recounted how he approached the university staff member during the 2022 presidential campaign and appealed to him to support Tinubu in the 2023 election.
According to Baruwa, the staff member, who was then a senior member of the university community, openly told him that he could not vote for Tinubu.
However, after the man’s son gained admission into the University of Ibadan in 2023, Baruwa said he contacted the family in 2024 and introduced them to NELFUND.
He said the student, who was then in 200 level, applied for the student loan, was approved and had continued benefiting from the scheme.
Baruwa said the experience later became part of a broader conversation about the Tinubu administration after the student and four others decided to register for their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) within the University of Ibadan community.
According to him, he personally took the students to a registration centre and waited until they completed the process.
Baruwa said that, on their way back, the student told him about his father’s appreciation of some of the policies and programmes of the Tinubu administration, particularly NELFUND and what he described as a stable academic calendar.
The student, according to Baruwa, also told him that his father and some of his colleagues were now prepared to support President Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
Baruwa said the development made him happy because he had been hoping to persuade the senior university staff member to support Tinubu in 2027.
“I was happy hearing this, because I have been wanting to convince the senior staff to vote for President Tinubu in 2027,” he wrote.
He further disclosed that he ensured the four students he accompanied were registered in his polling unit within the University of Ibadan community.
Baruwa described the experience as evidence of how government policies can become points of reference for citizens when they directly experience their impact.
“Thank you President Tinubu for giving us what we can point as reference of your administration inside University of Ibadan community,” he wrote.
He ended the Facebook post with a confident political prediction: “January 16th would be loud.”