11th April, 2016
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Students of the University of Port Harcourt this morning protested against the increase in school fees by the school authorities blocking the entrance and exit into the institution.
The protest caused traffic jam on the East-West road as the protest spilled over to the Express road.
It was learnt the institution have given the directive that fees had been jacked up to N47,000 since November 2015 and students had up to April 4 2016, to pay up or be deregistered as students of the institution.
However students of the institution are saying the deadline given to them to pay up is too short and should be extended.
At the time of this report the students are marching towards Abuja campus of the institution, while access roads to the campuses have been barricaded.
However, when Dr. Williams Wodi, a deputy registrar and spokesman of the institution was called to react to the protest he said: “What’s going on is that less than two per cent of our students are protesting and are refusing to allow workers and other students to come into the campus to start their exams or do their legitimate duties.
“We sensitized our students as far back as November 2015, that we are going to change the perception of University where students carry over school fees from year one to the final year and that they should pay what we gave as outstanding charges because we do charge school fees.
“We told them that all returning students are to pay N45,000. That has been communicated through the school website, circular and the school bulletins. When we wanted to enforce the payment at the beginning of the session we saw that the compliance was very low the first deadline was 21 February 2016 so we extended it to March 11, 2016, we made it lecture free for all students so they could pay their fees. We recorded some mileage. Then we extended it to March 30, 2016.
“We still had some students who had still not paid so we opened our portal on April 5 for them to pay but we still had problems with a couple of them and reopened it on April 6 and closed it on midnight of April 7. You can see that from November last year to February 12, March 11, March 30, April 5 and finally April 7 about 98 per cent of students complied but about two per cent of the students have not complied and they are the ones making heaven and earth meet”.
On the penalty for not paying, Wodi said “My position is the position of the Senate of the institution. All those who are yet to pay by midnight of April 7, 2016 will automatically carry over the semester not deregistered.”
Asked if the UNIPORT would be ready to allow the defaulting students to write their examinations and pay later, Wodi said “No. The same Federal Government insisted based on the negotiations between Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and other unions that if lecturers invigilate for exams they need to be paid. Where will the institution have money to pay invigilators? Over the years parents and students have had the notion that students can pass through the institution without paying and after graduation they would pay. The decision of the institution is a recent development.”
Wodi argued that Nigerian parents have spent about N860 billion as fees for their children and wards in Ghanaian Universities that cannot compare with some state universities.
But Andrew Ajayi, a former student Union leader who commented on face-off between students and school authorities said the institution was insensitive. He argued that it was insensitivity on the part of UNIPORT authorities to have increased the fees in January and to expect parents to pay in the month of January when parents and guardians have scarce resources after Christmas festivities.
Ajayi did not spare students who are protesting over school fees increment stated that between January to April parents should have struggled to pay the fees of their children.