LASG Increased LASU Fees By 725% In 2011, Reverted Back To ₦25,000 In 2014

Both under The Fashola Administration, it was 25,000 before Fashola became Governor

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) government in Lagos state has announced a 725% increment in fees payable by students of Lagos State University (LASU). The highest fee proposed for medical students is N348, 750 – several times higher than the minimum wage!

Coming on the heels of harsh anti-poor attacks (planned removal of oil subsidy and electricity tariff hike) by the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Federal government, this latest fee increment is beginning to show clearly the consensus of all political parties including the ACN on attacks on the living conditions of young people, students and workers.

The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) has always argued that there is no fundamental difference between the ACN and the PDP. They both defend the same neo-liberal and anti-poor policies of removal of fuel subsidy, deregulation, fuel price hike, education commercialization and privatization of public assets. Only the building of a mass-based and democratic working class political party can provide the vast majority of working masses and angry youths with a political way out of the crisis of capitalism in Nigeria. With public ownership of key sectors of the economy linked with a socialist plan, Nigeria’s resources are more than enough to provide free and functional education at all levels.

As anger boils among young people and students, most of whom would be forced out of school as a result of fee hike, there is the urgent necessity to begin to build a mass-based struggle that can defeat education attacks and that can link demands for free education with the necessity for socialist change. The takeover of the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) by pro-capitalist government agents has been a key obstacle, in the last 10 years, to students struggle against education attacks. There is the urgent need to rebuild the Students’ Unions and make them real democratic and fighting organs of students through which a new mass-based and fighting national students’ platform can emerge.

The DSM calls on students of LASU to resist this fee hike with boycott, protest and demonstration. We urge staff unions and the trade unions to give support and solidarity to the struggle. Young people and students must resist the glaring insincerity of a ruling class which bails out banks while imposing ever higher school fees on students and taxes on poor people. Even though the fee hike is planned to kick off next session, the plans and activities to resist it must begin right from now. Below is a leaflet issued by the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) to sensitize the students’ populace and other members of the university community on the need to struggle against the outrageous fee increment.

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Fashola bows, reverts LASU fees to N25,000
LAGOS — Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, yesterday reverted the school fees being paid by students of the Lagos State University, LASU, to the old rate of N25, 000.

This came as armed security operatives shot teargas canisters at the members of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU-LASU, who gathered few metres away from the entrance gate to protest their unpaid salaries.

The administration of Fashola had in 2011 hiked the fees to between N193,000 to N350,000, which led to massive protests by students, leading to the reduction in the fees from between 34 and 60 percent few months ago.

But during the 19th convocation ceremony of the school at its campus in Ojo area of Lagos, Fashola succumbed and announced total reversal of the school fees to the old rate of N25, 000.

The total 100 percent reversal of the fees elicited wild jubilation among students and parents, who commended the governor for doing the right thing.

According to the governor, “Our students have also shown that they can choose this path of conflict resolution. They have reached out to me for a revision of their fee, which I have acceded to, in consultation with the State Executive Council for reduction between 34 per cent and 60 per cent across board. In spite of this reduction, the students have again demanded for further reduction. And they have done so in the most civilised way. And because of this, we had to consult extensively and we have come to the conclusion that the current economic situation of the country compels a reduction to the old tuition fees for the institution.

“And this was a response to the yearning of parents, guardian, senior citizens of the country. I believe that with this, it will lead to the end of the activities of the busy bodies who have sorted to use a genuine issue of how to fund tertiary education in our country to gain public recognition. While other well meaning citizens of the state were busy making efforts on how the issue could be better resolved, they were busy instigating students and making mischief.

“Our students have shown that they value their education and will not fall prey to fear weather and self-seeking people who masquerade as their friends, but whose objective is to use the students’ genuine demands for their own selfish agenda. For me, we must now move on to the developmental work students’ arcade, which was ongoing in this great institution. This administration is determined to ensure that no child who seeks education is left behind.”

The governor commended the academic and non-teaching staff for their effort in ensuring that despite the nine months strike, they rallied round the Vice chancellor, Professor John Obafunwa to ensure that the students graduated yesterday, saying they ensured that academic activities went on in the hit of the strike.

But Vanguard gathered that the students, two months ago, sent another letter to the governor demanding total reversal to the old tuition fees paid before the increment in 2011.

In his address, Obafunwa said the convocation offered the institution the opportunity to confer first degree, diplomas, postgraduates and higher degrees to 11,791 graduands.

Obafunwa noted that since the current administration of the school assumed office, it had worked tirelessly to ensure that the backlogs of over 20,000 certificates were signed and graduands received their certificate on their convocation day.

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