The premier University of Ibadan has not remained the same since the students of the university resolved to troop out in protest against some newly introduced policies of the university, having to do with hike in tuition payable, electricity rationing and victimization of students on Thursday 29th August, 2024. The demonstration, which according to available reports, broke out after students gathered to react to the policy at the Trenchard Hall of the university has also invited the brutal actions of the Nigerian Police Force who has effected arrests of student activists. Some of these activists are said to have been released as at the time of writing this article.
While the building protest at Trenchard is nothing but a resistance move against the highlighted policies which were designated “obnoxious” by the students, the students who had been presented before different disciplinary panels for the slight confrontation that took place in the course of the inauguration of the newly elected students union executives on 13th May, 2024, are deemed to be the spirit of the struggle. In a memo delivered to three students, namely, Olamide Gbadegeshin of the Institute of African Studies, Aduwo Ayodele of the Department of History, as well as Nice Linus on the 21st June, 2024, the management alleged the disruption of the inauguration programme, called them out over acts of insubordination, disrespect and acts deemed unruly.
My readers must be aware that not only has this invitation made the University of Ibadan a theater of the absurd, it has also put authorities, including the country’s leadership, under scrutiny. Amnesty International, a multinational human rights group has this to say about the plight of the invited students: “Amnesty International calls on the University of Ibadan to rescind plans to expel three students for exercising their human rights; by participating in a protest against an outrageous fee hike that so far forced many students to withdraw from University education.”
It further states, “The university of Ibadan had invited the three students: Olamide Gbadegeshin, Aduwo Ayodele and Nice Linus to appear before a disciplinary committee in what appears to be an attempt to intimidate them. In the face of the worst economic crisis, universities should be reducing fees.”
In the same vein, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, while reacting through its Public Relations Officer, Victor Igbudu, said the fee increase for the 2023/2024 academic session, which ranged from N230,000 to N412,000, is deemed unacceptable.
The recent development at the University of Ibadan is said to have unsettled the entire country owing to the historical significance of the University as the premier tertiary institution in the country. It is a fundamental truism that the litmus test on university students will have been first carried out at the country’s premier institution before it spirals to other universities in the country. The reality on ground is that other universities in the country should be warming up for this fire that is gradually spreading across board. They must be able to confront President Tinubu whose initiated students’ loan is barely solving the perennial problem with respect to educational financing in the country.
If the University of Ibadan that recently acknowledged the receipt of a total of N201,114,650 from the federal government as tuition payment for 1,370 students for the 2023/2024 academic session can rush to increase tuition, what is now the fate of students who have obtained commensurate loans from the federal government, hoping to attend school on credit. Will the amount obtained measure up to the latest development as a hike? After all, Chief Bisi Akande, the Pro-Chancellor of the varsity’s Governing Council was compassionate enough to pledge his allowances to deserving undergraduate students in the Sciences. He must have done this while having it at the back of his mind that countrymen are distressed. How do we substantiate the fact that a council headed by him has also gone all out to give its imprimatur to the increment for the same tuition?
Chief Bisi Akande will be playing a historical role in this situation by getting the president to do the right thing in this whole matter. Nigerian students are relying on him for ideas and headway out of this quagmire. If things are done and continually done this way, there is no basis for criminalizing peaceful protests on our campuses. The president must accept to fund education. It is sad that the management is considering the closure of the institution as a solution to the situation. May fees fall at the University of Ibadan.