Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, yesterday sent its students home
indefinitely after students disrupted school activities for more than
two days, protesting the school’s increased acceptance fee. Students
prevented motorists from entering or departing via the school’s two
main entrances, forcing hundreds to walk at least two kilometres to get
to the main campus. The protesters said they were challenging the
university’s acceptance fee which were increased from N2,000 to N20,000
for the incoming new students who would have undergone a matriculation
ceremony on Wednesday. The matriculation has also been postponed. Led
by the Student Union government executive of the school, the students
crowded strategic locations on the main roads and sang protest songs.
The school’s management, in a memo pasted around the campus, ordered
the students to vacate their halls of residence and also suspended the
activities of the Student Union. Efforts to speak to the
vice-chancellor, Michael Faborode, and the school public relations
officer were fruitless as they did not answer their telephones or
respond to emails.
Visitors to the campus since Monday expressed their displeasure with the protesters.
“I walked all the way from the school gate to Oduduwa Hall,” said one visitor who declined to give her name. “It was horrible.”
A few of the lecturers who spoke to NEXT on condition of anonymity sympathised with the students.
“I think that sum
was too much,” said a lecturer. “When I was here as a student, I think
I paid N100 and that was just like 10 years ago so you can imagine the
difference. I think the vice-chancellor and the registrar should
rethink the issues and make amends. Although what the students have
also forgotten is the fact that they will be the ones to suffer the
entire outcome but still does not means that the Faborode people are
right.”
Another lecturer and a parent of one of the new students, however, told NEXT that he did not blame the students.
“They’ve all taken
their children abroad to school,” he said. “So what do you expect? The
VC has been having a lot of problems these days. The same thing with
his staff too.”
Students speak
Defending the need
for the protests, the Student Union president, Fredrick Joel, denied
allegations that the protests were violent.
“The protest was agreed upon last week Thursday, but it started on
Monday and of course, it has been the issue of acceptance fee that
started it,” he said. “We have met with the governing council and the
reply was not favourable and all effort was shunned. So there was a
peaceful protest in the campus on Monday and Tuesday and today also,
because today was supposed to be the matriculation day.
Yesterday
evening, after the protests, we held a congress and we concluded that
so far, that all effort to make our grievances known have been
rebuffed. Those that want to pay should pay it and those that do not
have it or that are not ready to do so should not do, but we are
surprised to only discover the directive that we should just go home.”
