Students of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, have threatened to shut down the institution’s operations.
Their threat comes after the institution’s administration announced a 300 percent increase in tuition rates.
Abiodun Olarewaju, the institution’s Public Relations Officer, stated that the increase was agreed upon following an emergency management meeting last week.
During a news conference on Monday, the Students Union Government, SUG, led by its President, Abbas Akinremi-Ojo, stated that if the OAU administration did not reverse its decision, the students would take action.
Kicking against the action, Ojo said,
“We’ve also written to all respective banks to halt the acceptance of fee payments from any student until a better resolution has been achieved.
“As much as we don’t want to, we are currently running out of options and might have to shut down all activities on campus and progressively on all other federal institutions campuses in Nigeria because we are carrying the leadership of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) along.
“The student leadership had met with the management in August when we learnt about plans to increase school fees and we started negotiating.
“Unfortunately, they shut us out and announced the new fee. They claimed that the Federal Government has stopped funding OAU; meanwhile, the recent release on September 15th, 2023 listed OAU as number 9 of the top-funded universities with a budget allocation of N13.4B.”
Similarly, the National Association of University Students, NANS, has warned other universities preparing to raise fees through its Chairman, Olayinka Popoola in Osogbo.
In his words, “universities must source funds elsewhere to meet their needs.”