LASU Students Vandalise Property At Lagos Assembly Over Hike in Tuition Fees

Lawmakers and staff of the Lagos State House of Assembly were left bewildered at the way students of the state university (LASU), who are still aggrieved over the 1, 272 percent hike in their fees, vandalised properties at the Assembly complex today.

The students had come to know the outcome of the deliberation by the lawmakers on the increase in their fees but became violent when they were prevented by the House security guards from gaining entrance into the chambers. They immediately broke down one of the major entrances to the Assembly complex while the security officials who had prevented them ran for their dear lives.

Not satisfied, they smashed the windscreen of a Mercedes Benz 190 car belonging to the cameraman of the state television station (LTV), who had come to cover the sitting. The students who had come in several vehicles including two buses of the Bus Rapid Transit system and commuter buses popularly called danfo, also destroyed flowers at the Assembly premises. They pasted anti-government posters and sang songs to press home their grievances.

While they were vandalising the properties, the lawmakers were within the chambers drilling the state Commissioner of Education, Olayinka Oladunjoye, the Special Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola on Education, Fatai Olukoga and the university management. Most of the lawmakers who spoke kicked against the hike which they described as astronomical even though the state government means well for the institution.

Some of them also criticised the implementation of the white paper by the state government without recourse to the lawmakers as stipulated in the law. The sitting started with the President of the Student Union Government, Durojaiye Akeem Olalekan, explaining that the announcement had caused anger because the government did not take into consideration the economic condition of parents who toil to see their children go to school.

He explained to the lawmakers that the majority of the 14,003 students of the institution have parents who live below the poverty line, but ensure their kids are educated. He said at first, the students were opposed to the huge increase from N25,000 to N193, 750 and N348, 750 depending on the course of study. He said though the increase would not affect the present students as it would begin with the 2011/2012 set, “in the Students Union Government, it is believed that an injury to one is an injury to all.”

The Acting Vice Chancellor of the institution, Ibiyemi Olatunji Bello, and Olukoga tried hard to convince the lawmakers, who were obviously not in support of the increment, on the reasons why the government took the action. According to the VC, the management of the university got the instruction to implement the white paper of the visitation panel to the institution to the letter; one of this was the increase in the fees. She also said the fees were meant to develop the institution and build more infrastructure.

Olukoga, who said his child is in a private university, said the only way to make the institution comparable to the privately run ones is for the fees to be hiked. However, he was quickly opposed by the lawmakers who said they saw no reason why the government would increase the fees in a sector that is supposed to be a social service to the people.

The House then set up a committee made of the institution’s management, representatives of the students, the state government, the Parents Forum and lawmakers of the Assembly to come up with a position that could be accepted by all the stakeholders.