Students of the Lagos State University (LASU) have rejected the offer of the Lagos State Government to reduce some fees by percentage points, depending on the faculty or department.
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Students of the Lagos State University (LASU) have rejected the offer of the Lagos State Government to reduce some fees by percentage points, depending on the faculty or department.
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Instead, they are demanding a 67% reduction, period.
The students made their views known today at a press conference, pointing out that while the government made no reference to percentages when it was imposing the hike, it has chosen a spurious regime of percentages for reducing it.
Addressing the conference on behalf of the LASU Students Union Government, the president of the union, Mr. Nurudeen Yusuf Temilola, described the hike in the first place as "satanic, inhumane and ridiculous".
He said the offer to reduce on varying percentages was unacceptable to the students, noting that the Government had announced the hike in specific "Naira and kobo terms" when it was increasing the tuition, and that parents who sell common items such as pepper and foodstuff to pay school fees do not understand the loose percentages.
"The Government is trying to play joker on our future, destiny and posterity of the State", Temilola said.
He said the students had cause to doubt the sincerity of the government led by Mr. Babatunde Fashola, stating that the hike was anchored on a selective adoption of the recommendations of the governor’s visitation panel.
The union said they want the government to announce a specific amount across the board, stating that they had themselves recommended to the government a fee raise structure that the students will be comfortable with:
- N65,000 for fresh students, and
- N46,500 for returning students, across the board.
The SUG said the government ignored those recommendations only to come up later with its unacceptable percentage options, and that they regard the government’s threats and actions to be a violation of their rights.
Declaring that their protests will continue until their demands are fully met, the students called on Governor Fashola and the Police Force to tender an apology for ordering or implementing a violent attack on them during their protests.
They described the police attack on their protest on June 2 in Oshodi as a reminder of the "dark military days".
They also declared Governor Fashola as bringing his government into disrepute by his June 10 order to the police to shoot at them in front of his office.
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