Fashola Reverts LASU Tuition Fees As SSANU Protests Non-Payment Of Salary

Posted by African Examiner education, Featured, Latest Headlines, News Thursday, August 7th, 2014

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has reverted the school fees being paid by students of the Lagos State University, LASU, back to the old rate of N25, 000.

This is coming as the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria University (SSANU), LASU chapter protested vehemently on Thursday over the non-payment of their two months salaries by the state government.

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.

But on Thursday, during the 19th Convocation ceremony of the school at its campus in Ojo area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, 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.

“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 percent and 60 percent across board.

“In spite of this reduction, the students have again demanded for further reduction. And they have done so in the most civilized 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 in other 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,” he said.

According to him, “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 to ensure that despite the nine months strike, they rallied round the Vice chancellor, Professor John Obafunwa to ensure that the students graduated today, saying that they ensured that academic activities went on in the hit of the strike.

SSANU Chairman, Mr. Oseni Saheed said that they called off their strike because the management of the institution signed an

agreement with them to pay all what they were owing them.

“We have been on strike before the convocation and because of the 19th convocation; we decided to call off the strike which we embarked upon following the decision of the school management to withhold some of our staff’s benefits.

“Two weeks ago, the chairman of the governing council appealed to us to call off the strike and we yielded after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the management. Before we called off the strike, they have stopped the payment of the staff’s salary. It is unjustified to withhold the staffs’ salary.

“We gave them the ultimatum that the salary must be paid before August 5, 2014. Rather than do that, they went on with their convocation,” he stated.