Ogun State Government on Saturday
ordered the closure of Olabisi Onabanjo
University, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. The announcement
came just 24hours after the expiration date
given to the students by government to address
the tuition fees crisis. The students had
embarked on a two-day protest demanding that
the school fees be reduced 50 per cent effective
from the 2013/2014 academic session and not
2014/2015 session as approved by government.
A day after the protests, the state governor,
Ibikunle Amosun, met with the students and
resolved to address their demands within a
week and set up a committee. However,
following the deadline, the state government
directed the school’s governing council to close
down the university immediately.
The government, in a statement by the Secretary
to the Government, Adeoluwa Taiwo, advised all
parents whose wards are students of the
university to immediately call them to order as
the government would not tolerate any act that
would disturb the peace in the state. Mr.
Adeoluwa said the decision to shut the
university was taken in the overall interest of
peace and order as the students have continued
to issue threats while rejecting all entreaties and
concessions made by the government with
regards to their demands. He explained that the
government had, on August 12 after extensive
deliberations involving the leadership of the
student unions in the 10 state-owned tertiary
institutions, heads of the institutions and
government representatives, announced
reductions in school fees as high as 61 per cent.
According to him, the government also
abolished the indigene/non-indigene dichotomy
in the school fees regime and announced the
2014/2015 academic session as the start of the
policy. Mr. Adeoluwa pointed out that while
students in nine of the ten institutions
commended the government for its decisions,
OOU students insisted that the new school fees
regime should take effect from the 2013/2014
academic session and that the fees should be
further reduced. “The OOU students premised
their position on the fact that they are currently
running the 2013-2014 academic session which
will end in January.
They also rejected the fact presented by
students of other institutions that they are also
in the same situation as some of them will only
be concluding the 2013-2014 session in
December,” the statement said. Mr. Adeoluwa
said the government had also sought to
convince the students that it could not afford to
bear the financial implication of commencing
the implementation of the new school fees
regime as it would cost the government over
N2 billion. “OOU students staged a violent
demonstration in the state capital, Abeokuta, on
August 15 and it took the personal intervention
of the governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun to
restore normalcy,” the statement said. “The
governor thereafter set up an ad-hoc committee
to discuss with the students with a view to
resolving the situation.
During discussions with the ad-hoc committee,
OOU students maintained their stand that the
fees must be further reduced and that the
implementation must commence immediately.
“The explanation that no other state in Nigeria
is saddled with the responsibility of funding 10
tertiary institutions and that to accede to their
request would mean natural death for the
institutions made no sense to them. The student
leaders were, within the week, sending text
messages round, urging their colleagues “to get
ready for action” as they are ready to unleash
violence on the state capital. “Security reports
have since confirmed that because the students
are acting under external influence, no
concession made by the government will be
satisfactory to them. “Consequently, we have no
option than to order the immediate closure of
all the campuses of Olabisi Onabanjo University
to protect the students and other residents of
the state and their property. We urge all
parents to impress on their wards the need to
maintain peace in the interest of all.”
Source: PREMIUMTIMES
No comments:
Post a Comment