The University of Lagos’ management has been given 48 hours to reverse the fee increase by the National Association of Nigerian Students.
NANS leader individuals, drove by the Public Advertising Official, Giwa Temitope; Akinteye Afeez, National Vice President, External; and others, including the Deputy Senate President, Ekundina Elvis, condemned the arrest of students on Friday for protesting a fee increase at UNILAG Junction on Wednesday.
The police later released protesters Philip Olatinwo, Adeyeye Olorunfemi, Aduwo Ayodele, and the Giwa, among others, in the evening. During the protest, the security forces had used tear gas to disperse the students at UNILAG Junction.
On Tuesday, the Lagos State Police Command stated that students should inform the police of their plans for a protest so that adequate measures can be taken, but students protested, claiming that protest is a fundamental human right.
“We want to state that the repression that was meted out during our protest on Wednesday against the astronomical increase in fees payable at the University of Lagos is condemnable,” the student leaders said at a press conference held at the International Press Centre, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos.
The decision to protest the fee increase was made, according to NANS, after the management of the University of Lagos allegedly violated the terms of the agreement during a meeting with the students on August 2, 2023, “where the Vice Chancellor assured us that the fee would be reversed and reviewed through a joint body of students and management staff of the university.”
Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, Head of the Communications Unit at UNILAG, responded when contacted on Wednesday that the management was not against legal protest. She instructed the students to direct their complaints in the right direction.
The university does not oppose our students’ peaceful, legal demonstrations. Our understudies, who are right now an extended get-away, are ordered to channel all complaints through the Dignitary, Understudy Undertakings, who is formally enabled to communicate with understudies,” Alaga-Ibraheem said in a visit with our journalist.
“The management of the University of Lagos is hereby given 48 hours ultimatum to immediately reverse the fees as agreed upon and refund students that must have paid the astronomical fees,” the NANS leaders stated, despite insisting that the student body would storm UNILAG once more.
“Therefore, all presidents of students’ unions, the leadership of NANS, and Nigerian students are hereby notified to begin mobilizations.” We will return to the UNILAG gates. The economy is in peril, and illiteracy cannot be exchanged for education. It is our major common freedom to be taught. The police authority must immediately cease repressing protests by students and the general public. We advise Unity Schools and all higher education institutions not to include a kobo in their fees.
The UNILAG the executives in July 2023 expanded charges from N19,000 to N190,250 for understudies reading up medication while for courses that require lab and studio, the understudies were to pay N140,250. The management gave the reason as “prevailing economic realities.”
