Business activities were halted yesterday in Alausa, the seat of power in Lagos State, as the Joint Action Front (JAF) and Education Rights Campaign (ERC) joined the protest by the Lagos State University (LASU) students against hike in tuition fee and the partial resumption of students.
The protest started at about 7:20am at the Textile Garment House with hundreds of LASU students marching and singing war songs on the Agindigbi road via Awolowo road.
They stormed the House of Assembly to express their grievances over what they called “outrageous school fees”.
Addressing protesters, the National Coordinator of ERC, Comrade Hassan Soweto, said: “We earnestly urge honourable members of the Assembly to reverse the fees at LASU because the fee hike was the cause of protests by LASUITES on January 23 and 24, as well as the inability of about 1,292 students to register”.
Soweto said the cause of the protests should be addressed once and for all, adding that the fee hike is “anti-poor” and unaffordable by the majority, including civil servants.
He said: “This regime of fees in the only public university in the state is unaffordable for the majority. It contradicts the vision of LASU founding fathers and is calculated to price education out of the reach of the children of the working class.
“We urge members of the House to prevail on the governor to reduce the fees and allow LASU students to resume on February 24 as announced by the school’s management for final year students.”
JAF Secretary Comrade Abiodun Aremu said: “We demand immediate reversal of the hiked fees at LASU by the management. We have argued severally that the outrageous fee hike is the cause of crisis in LASU and its reversal, adequate funding and the democratic management of LASU are the only solutions.
“The majority of Lagosians, except the few who benefit from the government, are opposed to the continuous charging of N193,750 and N348,750 as fees in LASU.”
He said JAF members would be at LASU gate on the resumption day and they would disregard law enforcement officers the school management might invite to harass students.
Deputy Speaker Musibau Kolawole Taiwo said the fees were increased to provide adequate facilities.
He said: “Some courses were disaccredited in LASU by the National Universities Commission (NUC) during its visit to the school. I was part of the lawmakers that went to the commission’s office in Abuja and we were told that they were coming to disaccredit more courses. That was why we supported the state government on the need to increase fees to help the school.”
Source: The Nation
