UNIMAID Students Protest Increase In School Fees

The students of the University of Maiduguri, Borno State on Thursday have taken to the street to protest the hike in the school fees by the management.

Talking to journalists at the protest scene, the National Vice President, Special Duties of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Suleiman Muhammad Sarki said the ‘mother of all protests’ will be next if the management does not do the rightful.

He added that the fee increase would chase a huge population of Nigerian students into insurgency, banditry and kidnapping, as they will drop out of school because of their inability to pay.

“I, for example, last year, paid N29,830 but this year, it has skyrocketed to about N74,000, I don’t have the money to pay this, I may have to quit my studies,” the NANS leader said.

Sarki added, “The recent hike in school charges by some Nigerian universities does not only come to us as a surprise but as an affront to the war against insurgency, banditry and kidnapping.

“Students who are unable to pay the new fees might end up becoming dropouts and this will add to the rising number of youth restiveness in Nigeria, which may also in return increase the number of insurgents, bandits and kidnappers.”

While expressing the hope of the Nigerian students that the fees hike “will not see the light of the day,” he said the students plead to the government, elder statesmen, relevant stakeholders in the educational sector, traditional rulers, Ulama and priests to intervene and prevail on the governing councils to rescind their decision on the fees hike.

“We expect that within the next two weeks, they will intervene on the fee increase to be withdrawn,” the NANS leader said.

“We will lead students across the country on this mother of all protests after the two-week ultimatum, and we will not stop until the decision is rescinded,” he further said.