The students, who lamented recent increment in fees at Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo State, and Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, posited that state governments were trying to price education out of the reach of the common man.
Students under the auspices of the National Association of Nigerian Students, South-West (Zone D), have called on the federal and state governments to reverse the increase in tuition fee of some tertiary institutions in the country.
The students, who lamented recent increment in fees at Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo State, and Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, posited that state governments were trying to price education out of the reach of the common man.
In the statement jointly signed by Kowe Odunayo Amos, Coordinator, NANS Zone D; Giwa Yisa Temitope, Secretary-General, and Kazeem Olalekan Israel, PRO, the students held that the excuse given by the institutions that students had to pay more to fund the institution was untenable and cannot stand the test of logic.
The statement reads, “The increment, especially in Ekiti State University, mean that some students will be paying over N200,000 as fees. This is sheer show of insensitivity to the plight of the Nigerian masses.
“Over the years, many workers have had to experience months of non-payment of salaries and in some cases paltry payment has been the order. How then do they expect students to afford such fees?
“This unjust increment is coming at a critical point where all indexes are in the negative; all statistics to measure the social and economic growth are not indicating anything good.
“If we are to go by the new N30,000 minimum wage, how many months’ earning can meet the outrageous fees the administrators of EKSU and ACE, Ondo, intend to force down the throat of innocent students.
“We hereby demand the immediate reversal of these callous increment.
“We charge Nigerian students, civil society organisations, the labour movement, the entire NANS structures and the masses to join us as we struggle to ensure the reversal of the increment in Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti and Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo.
“We must make it known that we stand firmly on the traditional demand of NANS for free and quality education at all levels.
“Any government that cannot ensure the provision of free and quality and other social benefits, does not deserve to be a government because government exist for the state and not the state for government.”