Students of Ekiti State University Ado Ekiti on Thursday protested against the new policy of no-fee-no-lecture introduced by the university’s management.
Enraged by the policy, some of the students staged a protest outside the gate of the university, preventing varsity officials and visitors from entering the university.
The students, who were chanting anti-government songs, said although Governor Kayode Fayemi announced that fees in the varsity and other state-owned institutions be pegged at N50,000.00, EKSU management made sure that students paid nothing less than N85,000, with some paying as high as N150,000.00.
The protest temporarily forced motorists to stop at a distance from the university gate, until the students later made way for them to pass.
No fewer than 10 patrol vans, loaded with armed policemen and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, were stationed at the main gate to prevent any act of vandalism.
Some of the students told journalists that the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oladipo Aina, and some other senior officials of the institution were smuggled out of the campus when the protest was gathering momentum.
A student, who identified himself as Ifeoluwa, spoke on behalf of the protesting students. He asked the school management to rescind the decision and allow students to pay their tuition fees in installments.
The protesting students also frowned on the introduction of uniform for students by the Faculty of Education, saying this would make the university look like an advanced secondary school.
But the vice chancellor insisted that the no-fee-no-lecture would not change until all the students pay their fees.
He said, “EKSU charges the least tuition fee, especially among state universities. Very few students have paid. We can no longer continue to run the university that way. If we wait till the examination period, they would plead through politicians, monarchs and clerics, and after allowing them to write exams, they would not pay.”
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