LASU students resolve not to pay tution fee

Lagos – The Lagos State University Students Union (LASUSU) on Thursday said no student of the institution would pay the increased tuition fee levied by the state government. The Union President, Nurudeen Yusuf, at a press briefing at the Ojuelegba campus, said that the decision was unanimously taken by the students of the university. “The students had unanimously agreed not to pay the increased fee, as they resume a new session, next week until a reduction is made,” he said. Yusuf said that the union had submitted a proposal for the reduction of the fee to the State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, as requested by him at a meeting on April 3. “The union held a meeting with the governor on April 3 and he made it clear that total reversal of the fee is not possible. “Fashola instructed that we should go and look at the breakdown of the fee and come up with how much we want the government to reduce it to,” he said. According to Yusuf, the union, having met with the students on April 7, came up with a proposal of N46, 500 for returning students and N65, 500 for freshers as the new tuition fee. The union leader said the proposal on the amended fee was submitted to the governor on April 24 with a list of 86 students who dropped out of the institution after the fee was increased. “Unfortunately, we had not received any response from the government since then and we had further written another letter to the governor last week as a reminder,” he said. Yusuf said that the students would opt for drastic measure and protest that would ground the economy of the state if their demands were not met. He said that the fee hike was unjustifiable going by the breakdown and there was no correlation between the fee and quality of education. “For instance, N15, 000 is charged for teaching practice at the faculty of education, like housemanship for medical students, which is a service rendered by the students to the public. “We are supposed to be paid for rendering these services and not pay for rendering it. “The N350, 000 charged as tuition fee for a year without feeding and accommodation is more expensive than in some private universities which charge N450, 000 a year with feeding and accommodation,” he said. Yusuf also said that the state government must make LASU affordable to the teeming youths in the state so that it would not be held responsible for social security problems in the future. “The dreams of thousands of youths out there have been shattered by the fee hike and one day, they will come back asking for their right. “There is a correlation between peace and literacy rate, so Lagos must begin to invest heavily on security as the insurgency in the North today can be premised on their level of literacy,” he said. Yusuf also decried the dwindling enrolment of students and the rate of astronomical dropout since the fee hike. He called for immediate reduction of the increased fee by the State Government as proposed by the union. The union also charged the Federal Government to earnestly produce the missing Chibok secondary school girls. “We lend our voice as an injury to one is an injury to all and we are ready to protest if these girls are not produced earnestly,” he said. (NAN)