Tuition Hike: Ogun students threaten mass protest

The Ogun State chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students, which represents students in the state’s higher education institutions, has opposed the recent increase in tuition prices.

According to the children, the trek was intended to make life tough for them and their parents and force many of them to drop out of school.

The students have also demanded that the state government either satisfy their requests—which they refer to as “abnormal and killing school fees”—within four days or prepare for a large-scale demonstration in which they plan to occupy the governor’s office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, until they are met.

Recalled that students of the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu-Ode had on Monday, protested the over 100% increase in their school fees, a development that has forced the school to shut down.

Addressing journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital on Thursday, the NANS chairman, Francis Adeyanju, kicked against what he described as an “abnormal” increment in the school fees of all the state-owned tertiary institutions.

If the government does not reverse the higher school fees within the next four days, the chairman of NANS threatens to shut down the state with widespread protests.

Adeyanju, accompanied by Kehinde Mathew, National President of the National Association of the State pupils, explained that the increase in school fees was an effort to keep the state’s most vulnerable and impoverished pupils from receiving an inexpensive, high-quality education.

Mathew expressed displeasure at the “insensitivity of the government towards the plights of students and development of education in the state”.

Adeyanju said, “It is no rumour that the government has almost abandoned tertiary education. This is evident in the current deplorable state of our campuses across the State. Our schools are now filled with decaying infrastructure, inadequate teaching and non-teaching staff, an unconducive learning environment and salaries of staff are being owed.

“Most pathetic is the recent hike in school fees across our tertiary institutions. This is unfair and unacceptable. At Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), returning students are now to pay N180,000 as against N76,500 per session, while new students are now to pay as much as N230,000.

“The school fees of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), have been jacked up from N62,000 to N120,000 for Science students, while nonscience students are to pay between N150,000 to N155,000 as against N55,000.

“For Ogun State Polytechnic of Health and Allied Sciences, the school fees were increased from N67,000 to N109,000 for indigenous students, while non-indigenous students are now to pay N124,000 as against N77,400. These are just a few examples of the abnormal increment in school fees of tertiary institutions in the State.

“There is no excuse for any government to increase school fees abnormally for whatsoever reason, in as much as we are concerned as progressive-minded Nigerian students’ leaders, we believe the government is at liberty to diversify and seek funds, but tertiary institutions should not be seen as an avenue to source for funds.

“Tertiary institutions should not be seen as an avenue to generate IGR, rather they should be seen as an avenue to prepare the youths for the future, for us to take our leadership positions.

“We hereby give the Ogun State Government a four-day ultimatum to reverse all increments in state-owned institutions.

“If nothing is done at the expiration of the ultimatum, we will mobilise our students across the State and shut down the state in a mass protest until our demands are met.”