Students of the Lagos State University Ojo on Tuesday took to the streets to protest the fee hike in the institution and the state government’s failure to heed calls for a reduction.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the placard-carrying students staged a peaceful protest from the university’s main campus in Ojo and marched through the Badagry Expressway to Oshodi and Ikeja.
Some of the inscriptions on their placards read, “LASU is not a private University’’, “Fashola save our future’’,“ We demand immediate reduction of LASU fees’’ and “No going back on reduction of LASU fees’’.
NAN reports that the students’ protest resulted in traffic gridlock in the areas as they marched through.
Mr Nurudeen Yusuf, the President, Lagos State University Students Union (LASUSU), said the protest would continue till June 7 within Lagos.
He said that they would not back down until the government acceded to their demands.
“We are protesting because the state government has refused to reduce the fees in LASU,’’ he said.
Gov. Babatunde Fashola had, in a meeting with LASUSU on March 31, directed the students to come up with a proposal of how much they could afford.
The students union leadership met with the students in April, where they agreed that the fees be reduced to N46, 500 for returning students and N65, 500 for fresh students.
Yusuf said that the leadership of the union was invited by the State Executive Council Ad hoc Committee on Review of LASU tuition for a meeting on May 27.
He said the committee chaired by Mr Kayode Opeifa, the Commissioner for Transportation, said that quality education could not be achieved with the proposal of the students.
“LASUSU maintains that there is no going back on the proposal sent to the government,’’ the student union leader said.
He said that the students would take more drastic action if the state government failed to respond positively in the next one week.