Aluta continua! OAU students protest tuition hike

Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Osun State, have staged a protest against the hike in school fees.

The students, who stormed the varsity premises began the protest early Tuesday morning carrying placards reading “When I dey pay 20k, I dey borrow money. Where you wan make I 90k? #FeeMustFall”, “I cannot afford to drop out. #FeeMustFall”, “My Mama dey sell Fufu, my papa dey ride Okada. Where you won make I see 90k? #FeeMustFall.”

The Secretary General of the varsity Students’ Union, Akinboni Opeyemi, confirmed this to our correspondent, adding that the student populace does not agree with the current tuition fee.

The students’ union on September 26 urged students of the institution to suspend payment of tuition fees, following the slash in fee hike by the management of the institution.

Recall that the management of OAU reviewed the school fees payable by the students of the university.

A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the university, Abiodun Olanrewaju, stated that the management reduced the fees after a meeting held with the students.

Olanrewaju had said that the Students’ Union leaders were adamant, insisting that the fees should be reduced by 50 per cent.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adebayo Simeon Bamire, however, stated that the charges initially announced have been reduced as follows:

“For the students in Humanities, the initial sundry charges of N89, 200 for returning students have been reduced to N76,000 while for the new students in the Humanities, the initial fees of N151,200 have been reduced to N131,000.

“For those in the Sciences and Technology, the initial charges of N101,200, for returning students is now N86,000 while the new students in the same Faculties will now pay N141,000 instead of the initial N163,200.

“In the same vein, the returning students in the Pharmacy and College of Health Sciences will now pay N109,000, instead of N128,200. The new students in the same Faculties will now pay N164,000 instead of the initial charges of N190,000,” the statement partly read.

It added that the university management has agreed that the payment can be made in two equal installments.

While speaking with our correspondent, Opeyemi noted that the union requested a 50 per cent reduction of the initial proposed fee before it was reduced by 15 per cent.

“We want reduction just as stated in our last demand. We want a reduction of the initial proposed fee before they (school management) reduce it by 15 per cent,” Opeyemi told our correspondent.

The union earlier demanded that the school management make it a duty to reverse the increment in school fees and “all financial institutions, remita, especially ignore and suspend any payment from OAU pending the time the union will write to them; otherwise, their branches in Ife and OAU campus will be shut down.”

“We’ve also written to all respective banks to halt the acceptance of fee payments from any student until a better resolution has been achieved. As much as we don’t want to, we are currently running out of options and might have to shut down all activities on campus and progressively on all campuses throughout the country if the school authorities remain silent on the issue,” the union added.