Don’t victimise us for condemning fees hike, NANS cautions varsity managements

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has cautioned managements of various federal universities in the country not to victimise any student who objects to fees hike and publicly condemns the policy.

The students’ body, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Mr Giwa Temitope, said the warning became necessary following alleged victimisation by the University of Benin (UNIBEN) management of a 400-level political science student of the school, Mr Obinna Ezechukwu.

The association alleged that the management of UNIBEN has already constituted a panel to question Obinna for condemning the fees increment in the university.

“But, we want to state categorically that the opinion expressed by Obinna against fees hike at UNIBEN represents that of the generality of Nigerian students across public universities nationwide.”

The statement read further that, “as an association, we have made our position known that we reject fees hike across our tertiary institutions while we also demand proper funding of the educational sector generally by both the federal and various state governments.

“So, we call on the management of UNIBEN to immediately withdraw the case against Obinna in the spirit of fairness.

“UNIBEN management just like every other management needs not be told that increment in school fees would certainly force many students out of school and that will worsen Nigeria’s out- of-school children situation.

“That is why any attempt to enforce payment of fees increment not only by UNIBEN, but by all other public universities nationwide shall be resisted by all students with rounds of protest across our campuses.

“We therefore want all the various managements such as those of UNIBEN, UNILAG, UNIABUJA, UNICAL, OAU and others, to put on hold any fee increment as the House of Representatives had directed since increment would deprive many youths access to education.

“Already, the Nigerian people are facing hard times due to increase in petroleum price, Naira depreciation, rising prices of commodities, transportation, healthcare and among others.”

The students’ body said the claim by various school managements that the fee increment is needed to improve facilities on campuses is not only unjustifiable but deceptive.

According to NANS, this claim has always been the case for governments that are not sensitive to the plight of the citizens.

NANS argued that the issue of public schools from primary to tertiary levels faced with poor facilities is not a function of the amount of fees being paid by students, but that of the failure of the government to give adequate priority to the sector.

“It is the responsibility of the government to fund education well and should therefore not shift such responsibility over to students and their parents,” NANS concluded.