A Nigerian chartered accountant, Abiodun Aremu, has said that it is wrong for parents and students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria to negotiate tuition with the government and institution authorities, stressing that education is a right and not a privilege for Nigerians.
Aremu, who said this in a statement he personally signed and titled “For a Tuition Free Tertiary Education: A Battle the students must fight Win”, as a reaction to the trend of school fees hike by many universities in the country, questioned the basis on which representatives of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) would be negotiating school fees or pricing education with the government or the authorities of tertiary institutions.
According to him, the university system at the federal level operates on tuition free, not negotiated fees, therefore, it is wrong for parents and students to gather and negotiate tuition with any government or university authority.
Aremu said, “It remains a wrong approach for the so-called NANS representatives to be negotiating fees or pricing education with the Government or the authorities of the tertiary institutions. On what basis is such negotiation taking place?
“The University System at the federal level operates on tuition free not negotiated fees! It is wrong for any assemblage of' Uncle Toms' parents under the guise of parents' associations to be negotiating fees. The historic gain and victory of the Nationwide Ali Must Go struggle against the commercialisation of education is tuition free.
“The glorious NANS' leaderships from Chris Mamah in 1981 to early 1990s with the total solidarity of ASUU, the NLC and several other collectives of radical students mentored by the left collectives and individuals, across the campuses nationwide, sustained this precious gain of free tuition fees tertiary education which remained till date, despite that there were periods, when the NANS' elective positions, became the private properties and instruments of the State for violence.
“Since April 1978 till now is 45 years of consistent battles against the government and the reactionary school authorities on increases in school fees.
“And the current generation of students cannot and must never give up the fight to insist that: education is a right, not a privilege.
“In our time, we were inspired to struggle because we strived to acquire social consciousness and we studied revolutionary works of exemplary human beings such as Frantz Fanon who said, ‘every generation, out of relative obstructiveness, must discover its mission – fulfill it or betray it!’
“It is up to today’s generation of students and youth to seek knowledge and discover their mission beyond #EndSARS to #Endtuitionfees!”