Dele Olaosebikan
CONCERNED Students’ Against Tuition Fee Increment (CSATF) has condemned the introduction of a ten thousand naira (#10,000) ‘deterrence fine’ on undergraduate students who failed to pay or partly paid the University of Ibadan (UI) charged fees for the ongoing session.
While describing the introduction as a “compassionless fine on students for their inability to pay plethora of charges fees”, CSATF in a statement signed by Aduwo Ayodele, Its Coordinator and Kareem Abdullahi, Secretary urged the school management to rescind its decision
CSATF also called on the federal government, the Federal Ministry of Education, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) Oyo State chapter, as well as the University of Ibadan Students’ Union (UISU), to immediately prevail upon the university Senate to withdraw the imposed fine.
That some parents and concerned students are unable to pay the heavy list of fees at the University of Ibadan is not unconnected with the harsh economic situation in the country. This inability only confirms our hitherto, unchanging stance that fees across Nigeria’s tertiary institutions have become severely unaffordable.
“We do not just disagree vehemently with any further attempt to inconvenient underprivileged Nigerians, but categorically insist that the #10,000 fee, which is forthcoming to us only as a deterrence levy on students, be cleared from students’ portal instantly.
“Premised on the foregoing, CSATF considers this latest upshot of fine a neo-liberal conception such that depicts high insensitivity to the plights of students, parents and guardians, as the case may be.
“Also, we consider the unconscionable levy a conscious exploitative attempt to meanly reap funds from struggling students and their parents. This vain attempt to deride the poor is not only uncultured but is a decision that stands in twisted contrast to what the University of Ibadan, as an Ivy League, envision in its global objective.
“As an education rights movement, we hereby raise a public alarm and reiterate that there is no justification for the recent tithing of fines on students. Already, the high-handed initiation of bothersome fees like laboratory fees, studio levy, utility levy, and a fifty percent upsurge in accommodation fees in the ongoing session, is enough burden to parents and students, many who thought they had enrolled in a ‘public tertiary institution’ because of its fundamental characteristics – ‘accessibility and affordability’.
Eighteen-Eleven Media