OAU students vow to stop all activities if tuition increases

Threats to stop school operations have been made by students at Obafemi-Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State.

Their threat follows the institution’s management’s announcement of a 300 percent increase in tuition costs.

According to Abiodun Olarewaju, the institution’s public relations officer, the raise was decided upon following an emergency management meeting last week.

During a news conference on Monday, the Students Union Government, or SUG, led by its President, Abbas Akinremi-Ojo, threatened to take action if the OAU administration did not reverse its decision.

Ojo reacted angrily, saying, “We’ve also written to the respective banks to stop the acceptance of fee payments from any student until a better resolution has been reached.

Even though we don’t want to, we may soon be forced to stop all campus activities as well as gradually all other federal institution campuses in Nigeria because we are dragging the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) leadership along with us.

“When we learned about intentions to raise school fees, the student leadership convened a meeting with management in August, and we began bargaining.

“Unfortunately, they excluded us and revealed the additional charge. The current publication on September 15, 2023 placed OAU as number 9 of the top-funded universities with a budget allocation of N13.4B, notwithstanding their assertion that the Federal Government had discontinued paying OAU.

The National Association of University Students (NANS), which has its chairman in Osogbo, has similarly forewarned other universities that intend to raise tuition.

He stated that “universities must source funds elsewhere to meet their needs.”