School Fees Hike: Niger, SUG, PDP Disagree

Laleye Dipo in Minna

The recently reduced tuition fees announced by the Niger State Government for new and returning students as well as indigenes and non-indigene students have been rejected by the Student Union Government (SUG) of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University in Lapai, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

The management of the government-owned IBBUL had two weeks ago announced a more than 100 percent review of fees for all categories of students which takes effect from the new academic year beginning today.

The state government after the outcry from major stakeholders advised the Governing Council of the institution to review the fees downwards by about 10 percent.

A statement from the office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) advised the University Governing Council to reduce the fees as follows: returning students (indigene) from N67,925 to N50,000; new students (indigene) from N129,675 to N95,000; non-indigene students (returning) from N117,325 to N100,000; new students (non-indigene) from N201,210 to N170,000; new foreign students from N329,625 to N250,000, while returning foreign students would pay N200,000 instead of N266,760.

However, while reacting to the new development, the Student Union Government in a statement issued by the CPS to the SUG President, Markus David Sarkoma, declared that: “The proposed downward review of the tuition fee released by the state government through the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) is callous.

“The state government appears to have lost touch with the current economic situation that has ravaged not only the poor but the government itself.”

The statement said the SUG “disagrees with the proposal, and will stand to ensure that the reversal is total and absolute” and therefore directed that “no student should pay anything to the school coffer until further directives by the student’s apex body.”

In its reaction, the PDP in the state described the tuition fee hike and the reduction by government as “too little, too harsh; APC is an elitist party that builds nothing and destroys everything.”

A statement issued by the Publicity Secretary of the party, Sulaiman Ahmed Aliyu, said in the first instance, the hike was “unrealisable,” and called on the university management to be considerate because “the spirit behind the establishment of the university is not a business venture but to give education to children of the poor at an affordable rate.”

It therefore asked the APC government not to turn IBBUL into “a money-making machine.”