Written by Sodiq Oyeleke
Students of the Lagos State University, Ojo went on the rampage again on Monday to protest tuition hike in the institution and the alleged incompetence of a panel set up by the state House of Assembly to resolve the issue.
Consequently, vehicular and academic activities were disrupted while commuters, mostly traders, were prevented from reaching all the markets around the main campus of the institution at Ojo.
The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, had set up a panel to look into the crisis being generated by the sudden 725 per cent hike in fee of the university.
But the students did not just condemn the hike, they also expressed dissatisfaction at what they called the panel’s incompetency.
The students, who went out in large number to protest the unjust increment in their school fees, lamented that the panel constituted by the assembly had yet to provide any recommendation favourable to them.
The students started the protest around 9am on Tuesday after a congress summoned by the Students’ Union to determine the next line of action about the crisis.
The course of the meeting changed when some of the students brought in an official bulletin released by the school management warning the students against protest.
This infuriated the students and they started another round of protest daring the management to arrest them.
The Public Relations Officer of the Students’ Union, Mr. Teju Azeez, who spoke on behalf of the students, explained that the government and the university management had made up their minds to implement the new fee regime.
He also accused the lawmakers of buying time in favour of the state government.
Though efforts to speak with the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. John Obafunwa, failed, a senior officer in the registry told our correspondent that management had agreed to review the tuition downward. "The issue may soon die down as the state government and the management had agreed to slash the new fee to between N120,000 and N150,000," the source said.
"The panel has not had any serious meeting since their appointment, they keep postponing meetings to our detriment," he said.
He added that students were suspecting foul play with the actions and commitment of the members of the panel towards the issue.
"Members of the panel seem not to take this issue serious; they keep playing us by inviting us to meetings which they would not attend. We waited for over five hours yesterday for a meeting they knew they were not going to attend.
"Each time they are to sit, they would postpone the meeting for one flimsy excuse or the other. We are suspecting they want to visit injustice to us," he said.
Azeez also said they the management lied by saying that the institution’s Parent forum had agreed to pay the new fee regime, saying that the university did not have such a forum.
He said, "Since I have gotten to LASU, I have not heard of anything called Parent Forum, until now that they sent a proposal that the forum have accepted 25 per cent increase in the tuition fee."
He added that the student decided to embark on the protest since the state Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola was not responding to their need.
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
0 comments:
Post a Comment