LASU students turn down Fashola’s fee reduction

The Lagos State University Students Union (LASUSU) is unimpressed with the decision of the Lagos State Government to reduce tuition fees by 34 per cent.

Governor of the state, Babatunde Fashola, approved the reduction on Wednesday, following a report of  the ad hoc committee he constituted to review the fees.

But speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Nurudeen Yusuf, president of the Lagos State university Students union (LASUSU), urged the government to give details of the reduction in terms of naira and kobo, as it did during the increment.

“We do not accept the percentage reduction of the government because in 2011, when the fee was increased, it was not done on percentage level but in Naira and Kobo,” he said, according to NAN.

“How do they expect our parents, the market women scrambling to pay our fees, to calculate the percentage?”

Yusuf said the report of the ad hoc committee on the LASU fee review and the pronouncements of the state government were not in the interest of the students.

In 2011, the Lagos State government increased the tuition fee from N25, 000 to N193, 000 for students in the Arts and Education, and N350, 000 for medical students.

After series of recent protests, Fashola told officials of LASUSU in April to propose fees that the students could affort, because a total reversal was impossible.

The union subsequently submitted a proposal of N46,500 for returning students and N65,500 for fresh students, but Yusuf has now revealed that the union would consider a percentage reduction that is no less than 67 per cent across board.

“We recognise the fact that the governing council is empowered by the law establishing LASU to consider the school fee,” he said.

“But the sincerity of the government on the matter was questionable; it selectively adopted the report of a visitation panel that it set up. We demand that the government reduce the fees on compassionate grounds.”

Yusuf also demanded a public apology from the Lagos State commissioner of police, mr. Umar Manko, and the state government over the arrest and detention of some students during their protest to Alausa, Ikeja, on June 3.