Condemnation has continued to greet the new fee regime announced by the management of the University of Ibadan, UI, in which new students are to pay between N230,000 and N412,000, a huge leap from the N64, 600 new students paid last year. The Education Rights Campaign, ERC, in a statement yesterday, endorsed by Comrade Akin Paul, described the new fee regime as not only outrageous, but inconsiderate of the economic situation in the country. “The new fees, as seen on the university’s portal, range from N230,000 to N412, 000 depending on the courses. Therefore, this represents between 453% and 750% hike in the school fee charged for the 2022/23 academic session which ranged from N64, 600 to N69, 600.
“The ERC condemns the new fee hike and insists that the decision is callous, unjustifiable and anti-poor. A new fee hike whether for new intakes or old students will no doubt compound the economic woe of parents and guardians. It is evident that the country is currently at a critical time when mass of the Nigeria working people are still grappling without any end in sight, with the rising cost of living side by side several other multifaceted economic challenges largely occasioned by the decision of President Bola Tinubu to hike the price of petrol, under the pretence of subsidy removal. This is amidst several other pro-capitalist and anti-working people’s policies like devaluation of the Naira.
“As far as we are concerned in the ERC, Prof Adebowale-led university administration lacks moral credibility to impose a new and another regime of fee hike in the university. None of the previous hikes either by the present and past university administrations has translated into any marginal or significant improvement in both the learning and living conditions of the students. Therefore, we think it does not make sense, demanding more money from students when there is nothing concrete to show for the one previously collected.
“It is also important to state that education is meant to be a social service and not a commodity for sale. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the government at all levels to ensure that it is adequately funded and made accessible to all citizens without any form of discrimination. The argument that Nigerian government has no enough resources to guarantee free education for the citizens is not true. It is our belief in ERC that resources to fund free, quality public education can be liberated if every political office holder is placed on the salary and allowance earn by the civil servants. The public fund often set aside by governors, called security vote and spent without the citizens having the right to demand accountability should be scrapped and contract system which makes it easy for a pro-capitalist politicians to inflate the cost of executing public work should be canceled and replaced with public work programmes with democratic control.
Nationalisation of the key sectors of the economy such oil and gas, banking, etc under the democratic control and management of the elected representatives of the working people is also one crucial way through which resources can be liberated for adequate funding of public utilities like education.” ERC called on the management to reverse the hike in the interest of peace. However, an official of UI, who preferred anonymity, said the figures being circulated by the students were not correct, even though she did not give what the official figures were. She said the management would look into the matter and make decisions public soon.
