Oyo tertiary institution students protest schools’ closure, tuition hike

Roads leading in an out of Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan, enroute Queen Elizabeth road, Mokola, were, on Thursday, blocked by mostly students of Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology (OSCATECH), Igboora and Emmanuel Alayande College of Education (EACOED), Oyo, and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in protest against the prolonged closure of their schools as well as tuition hike.

The Secretariat gates were shut for about five hours with security operatives taking positions to prevent a bombardment by the protesting students who carried placards with messages like, “Is this democracy or crazy demo? Reopen our schools Mr Constituted Authority”, “Constituted Authority, please save our schools”, ” We are tired of staying at home”, “Education is a right and not a privilege”, ” Save our future and reopen our schools, We are tired of staying at home”.

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Staff of the OSCATECH and EACOED have been on strike for about four months owing to issues of nonpayment of salary arrears of 17 months, payment of fractional salaries from January 2016 till July 2018, inadequate subvention and poor funding by the state government.

The students, gathered under the auspices of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), also protested the recent increase of tuition fees from N65,000 and 72,000 to N200,000 and N250,000.

They consequently called for a reversal of the fees.

Speaking, Chairman, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Oyo State Chapter, Morounkola Teslim decried the back and forth between the management of the schools and the state government on modalities to resolve the impasse.

“We are here to show our displeasure to the society and to the Oyo State Secretariat concerning two of our state owned tertiary institutions which have been closed for the past four months and LAUTECH whose tuition fee has been increased.

“Government claimed that the reason for the closure is subvention but stated that it has increased subvention to 70 per cent and that management should augment with 30 per cent for salaries of workers to be paid. But, it is quite unfortunate that the management has been unable to supplement the subvention they are given.

“The situation is such that it is either government increases subvention to 100 percent or prevails on management to do the needful. How can we be kept at home for four months because the management and government are unable to find a way to pay the salaries of lecturers.

“Few days ago, we heard that the school fees of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, has been increased from N65,000 and 70,000 to N200,000 and N250,000. We believe that such exorbitant school fees will lead to students’ dropout.

“If the governor fails to speak with us, we will leave and hope to hear from government. If we don’t hear from government, we will reinforce and come back here in seven days,” Morounkola said.

Speaking in the same vein, Student Union executive of LAUTECH, Waheed Idowu called for a reversal of the tuition fee hike, to prevent students’ dropout.

“The increase of the tuition fee of LAUTECH from N65,000 to N2000,000 is unbearable and we want a total reversal. There should be no more half salary for our staff to return to their classrooms. We are tired of staying at home and want to return to school  The government and our management have failed us,” Waheed said.

Similarly, Student Union President, OSCATECH, Ademola Aliu, called for a further increase of subvention government gave schools so that salaries of their lecturers are paid and they can return to their classrooms.

“For the past four and a half months, our school has been shut down due to non payment of the salary of our lecturers and inadequate funding of infrastructure in our school.

“We have been home since June 2, 2018. We went for a strike in October last year, we resumed in February this year; then we began another strike on June 2 and since then we have not resumed. Subvention was increased from 25 to 61.35 percent but this is still inadequate. Moreover, our lecturers have vowed not to resume until subvention is increased to 100 percent. We are tired of being at home,” Aliu said.

Entreaties by government officials like Special Advisers to the Governor, Mr Segun Abolarinwa, Mrs Bisi Akin-Alabi, Afeez Bolaji; Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Toye Arulogun; Senior Special Assistant on Print and Broadcast Media, Mr Akin Oyedele to the students to nominate representatives to have a closed door meeting with government officials fell on deaf ears as the students insisted on a face-to-face conversation with Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

When it became obvious that their request to meet Ajimobi may not be yielded to, the students left with a resolve to return should government fail to resolve the impasse within the next seven days.

Rendering her appeal to the students, Akin-Alabi urged the students to be calm and willing to communicate with government officials to address the issues raised.

“They should stay calm to communicate their grievances to the right authorities. We are willing to rub minds with them towards the opening of their institutions in the very near future. There is no need for them blocking the way as there might be emergency. This is a major way that leads to University College Hospital.

“We are not saying that they shouldn’t protest but they should do it in a calm, civil and constructive manner so that we will be seen as making progress. We value education but they need to understand that these institutions are autonomous. We will listen to them, but we still have to go through their governing councils,” Akin-Alabi said.