26th August, 2014
Kazeem Ugbodaga
The authorities of the Lagos State University, LASU, have withheld the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, call-up letters of some of the students who took part in the last school fees protest, which eventually led to the reversal of the fees.
Consequently, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the South West Zone has appealed to Governor Babatunde Fashola to prevail on the management of the school to release the seized call-up letters of the affected students to allow them participate in the NYSC exercise.
During a visit to Governor Fashola on Monday at the State House, Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, a leader of the NANS’ delegate, Yakubu Eletu, also lamented that some of the students who took part in the protest over a month ago were still being detained by the police.
“Some of the students have been asked to face the senate because they protested over the increase in tuition fees and some are being denied the opportunity to go for their NYSC because the school’s management withheld their call up letters.
“We want the governor to prevail on the Vice Chancellor to sheathe his sword and allow the students who want to go for NYSC to do so,” he said.
Eletu commended Fashola for his swift intervention to prevent the spread of Ebola Virus Disease in the state.
Speaking, NANS Zone D Coordinator, Mr Sunday Ashefon praised the governor for surprising the students with his decision on the LASU fees because what the students were clamouring for was a reduction before the governor announced a reversal to the old school fees.
He said the fees payable in LASU was the lowest in any tertiary institution in Nigeria today and described Fashola as another Awolowo of his generation.
The students presented to Fashola a Certificate of Recommendation for single-handedly reversing the LASU tuition.
Receiving the recognition Fashola thanked the students and charged them to always reflect on how the quality of education could be improved, assuring that his government would solve the issue of quality education but that the students also have a role to play in proffering solutions since they know where the sho pinches.
“I am also inquiring from you: how can we improve the quality of education? So that we can begin to plan how to produce our next sets of graduates that would produce our cars, give us electricity, perform heart and kidney surgeries here. It may look so far away but we are closer to getting out and you are so close to taking over. We need to quickly fill that gap,” he stated.
According to the governor, while everyone acknowledged the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the free education policy today, many did not reflect on the fact that when he started, it was free education at primary education level that he introduced basically to tackle the problem of high illiteracy that was prevalent in the South West then.
He added that then when the programme was introduced, some people, especially farmers protested the policy because it will take away their children from the farms, adding that today, the literacy level in Nigerian is above 60 percent which explains that the problem has been solved.
Fashola said the students should reflect on the appropriateness of now using the same medicine of free education of over 50 years ago that was used to tackle high illiteracy to now solve a different problem of the quality of education.