OAU: Students threaten to shut campus over fee increment

Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Osun state have threatened to shut down the campus if the management fails to reverse the school fees.

The school management had in a statement issued by its Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olarewaju announced an increment of fees payable by both new and old students by over 300 per cent.

Addressing newsmen at the Ken Saro Wiwa Students’ Union Building on Monday, the President of Great Ife Students Union, Abbas Akinremi said the students will after Tuesday, (tomorrow) commence the process of shutting down the campus of the management’s failure to start negotiation on the issue.

“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 which they backed.

“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. The 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.”

Also, the Chairman, National Association of University Students, NAUS, Osun chapter, Olayinka Popoola described the increment as wicked, and unfortunate as parents are presently going through difficult economic situation as their salaries are stagnant despite subsidy removal.

He warned other universities planning to increase to desist, saying, “Universities must source funds elsewhere to meet their needs.”

Popoola also expressed worry over the safety of lives of the students of institutions in Ilesa, therefore, calling on security agencies to halt killings in the community.

(Vanguard)