Students of the Kogi State University, Anyigba on Wednesday morning, filed out of their hostels into major streets in the University community to protest “astronomical increase” in tuition and accomodation fees .
It was gathered that the school fees was hiked from N50,000 to N100,000, while students occupying old hostels who previously paid N10,000 are now required to pay N20,000. Accommodation fee for a popular hostel (Wada) also moved from N10,000 to N30,000, while a recently built hostel is fixed for N60,000.
The students had various placards in their hands with bold inscriptions,” Enough is Enough”, “Live and Let Live,” “Governor Bello’s anti- people’s policy killing us” “Children of the poor also deserve Education.”
A student who preferred to be anonymous said it was wrong for the government of Yahaya Bello to increase fees at this time against the background of the hardship on poorer homes.
” We did not envisage that Gov. Yahaya Bello would come up with increase in school fees at this time. We, the students of the school are mainly from poor backgrounds, and with the economic situation in the country coupled with the ripple effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is very unwise for the governor to continue to expose poor students to hardship.
“Where are we going to raise the money to pay the fees? Are there jobs on campus or elsewhere where we can work and also go to school as students in other countries do?
” Government want us to do everything for ourselves without us seeing government impact on children of the poor .
“Are the governor’ s children attending any public schools? So why push the poor students who find it difficult to eat a day to further hardship? “He asked.
