Instead of the effect is was meant to serve, the reduction in fees payable by students of government-owned tertiary institutions in Ogun State has struck the wrong chord in many students.
Gov. Ibikunle Amosun
Students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago- Iwoye, today a protest session, challenging what they called the “tactical and Jamboree deduction of increased school fees” by Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
According to them, the said reduction of the university’s tuition fee from about N192, 000 to about N176,000 is of little or no effect.
The fees’ reduction, announced by the Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Segun Odubela, indicates that medical students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, who are currently paying N301,610 will now pay N176,596, which the government says represents a 41.4 per cent reduction.
According to Odubela, students of the Faculty of Arts will now pay N81,112 instead of the current fee of N126,540.
However, the new fees will only take effect from next session, according to thhe commissioner. Enraged, Falola Ahmed who leads the Ogun State chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Student, confirmed what many believe to be a politically-motivated step by the Amosun-led government. Accusing the Ogun State governor of being out “to score cheap political goals, Ahmed said “the Governor has been making political statements about the fees he reduced, but this is a jamboree reduction, it is a tactical deduction. If he must reduce the tuition fee, he must reduce it to the minimum affordable to the people of Ogun State.
“As we speak, over 1,000 students of OOU are presently on their way to Oke Mosan to protest. We want Ibukunle Amosun to be sincere and stop media lies. He should fix the laboratories in the school.”