… Advocates for Affordable Education for All
…Supports Students protests to force reversal
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) is deeply concerned about the recent surge in tuition fees at public tertiary institutions, including the alarming increase at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and the University of Lagos (UniLag).
HURIWA revealed that the increment is “harsh, intolerable, wicked and abominable development not only anti-poor and anti-people, but also as an oppressive measure that threatens the fundamental right to quality education.
HURIWA in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko condemned the police especially in Lagos State for using water canons and forceful means to muzzle students right to peaceful protests in a manner that suggest that Nigeria has snowballed and cascaded into the abyss of dictatorship and tyranny even as it says that chapter 4 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recognise the right to freedom of speech and association.
In a shocking move, authorities at OAU announced an exorbitant 300% increase in school fees, placing an immense financial burden on students and their families. For the Faculties of Arts, Law, and Humanities, new students are now required to pay N151,200, while returning students face a staggering hike from N23,000 to N89,200. Similarly, students in the Faculties of Technology and Science are burdened with fees of N163,200 (new students) and N101,200 (returning students).
Even more distressing are the fees for the College of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Pharmacy, which now stand at N190,200 for new students and N128,200 for returning students.
The right group affirmed it’s stand in support of the student protests against these unjust increases and warned that the exorbitant fees be promptly reversed, stating that Education is a cornerstone of national development, and denying it to the majority of our population is a grave injustice that cannot be tolerated.
In conclusion, HURIWA firmly asserts that the hike in school fees is a deliberate attempt by the elite to maintain their stranglehold on education and perpetuate poverty as a generational curse.
