For about three hours, motorists and travelers plying Ife—Abuja expressway were forced to park, change routes, detour or entirely abandon their journeys. May 20, students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife, Osun state in south west Nigeria blocked the ever-busy road in protest against the recent hike in school fees. The public institution was ironically founded by, and named after the man who advocated for free education for all – the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
In the 70s and 80s, schools such as OAU offered free government-funded tertiary education to students, some of whom are now at the helm of affairs of these institutions —and who are now announcing hikes in fees over reasons students describe as unreasonable.
200% Hikes on the Horizon
Days into the last exams, the management of OAU announced new fees for its students which will rise by an average of about 211 percent. Students will be paying from N72,000 ($443) to N80,000 ($492) against the present fee that is as low as N7,000($43).
This hike is occurring in a nation that has a two-digit annual inflation rate.
“I’m annoyed at the outrageous fees,” a female OAU student who wanted to remain anonymous told AFKInsider. She described the hike in fees as the highest form of wickedness.
“Many students applied to the school because of its affordability and with the hike in fees, many of them will be forced to forfeit their admission or abandon their programs,” she said.
According to her, the founder of the school wanted it to be one that offers free education in order to empower all – irrespective of economy class – with education. This vision has been successful to a large extent considering the fact that the institution had trained several notable figures in politics, government, science, medicine, academia, and technology.
A good example is Seun Osewa, founder of Nairaland, Nigeria’s largest online community forum. He reportedly started the platform from the popular Awo Hostel in the university.
But not all government-owned Nigerian schools are cheap as some charge fees that are comparable with those of private-owned universities. One of such is the Lagos State University (LASU) where the students are also at loggerheads with the management and state government — which dragged eight of the students before a High Court in the state for disrupting peace.
But after several appeals and external interventions, the state government agreed on, and approved a 60 percent reduction in the fees.
In a resolution titled “Resolutions of the Lagos State Executive Council on the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Lagos State University,” Fatai Olukoga, the governor’s special adviser on education, said that the implementation of the reduction was without delay.
“Government agrees that with the subsidized tuition fees and appropriate moderation of the incidental fees, a reduction ranging from 34 per cent to 60 per cent is possible across the different faculties and courses,” he said.
“It has approved the reduction and, in accordance with the law setting up the university, forwarded its approval to the Lagos State University Governing Council for consideration and implementation.”
Following the funds
When members of Nigeria’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) last embarked on industrial action, one of the major demands was the improvement in the quality of education and facilities at the nation’s various Ivory Towers. They asked for huge sums of money for each school. They got it.
