VAM NEWS UPDATE

Students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife have threatened to shed down the institution’s campus over the management’s increase in fees.

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

Speaking to journalists 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, begin the process of shutting down the campus over the management’s failure to start negotiations to see to the reversal of the increased school fees.

“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.

“They 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,” the Student Union President said.

On his part, the Chairman of the National Association of University Students (NAUS) Osun chapter, Olayinka Popoola described the management’s move as wicked and unfortunate, acknowledging the hardships experienced by parents due to the removal of fuel subsidy.

Popoola warned other universities looking to increase their fees to source funds from other places to meet their needs.