Angry students of the Lagos State University on Tuesday rained expletives on the leadership of the Lagos State House of Assembly as well as other lawmakers of the House, during their protest against hike in the institution’s fees.
The students, who marched across some parts of Lagos before settling at the House, first refused to listen to Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Taiwo Kolawole; and when they finally did, they ended up insulting him and other members of the House.
“No matter where your children travel to outside Nigeria to get educational training, they will not return alive; and even when they do, they will never know peace”, one of them said.
One of the protesting students called the lawmakers “bad heads”, threatening to do everything to frustrate any ambition they may have in 2015 while others warned that if the state forces them out of school, they would remain alive to taunt and hurt children of the rich in the society.
Led to the House by two civil rights groups, the Joint Action Front (JAF) and the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), the students carried placards and sang against the government, threatening never to allow for peace in the institution until the fee hike is reversed.
The Babatunde Fashola-led administration had increased the school fees of the institution from N25,000 to between N193,750 and N348,750, depending on the courses registered by the students. Many residents of the state, including the students, believe that this is the primary cause of all the crises that have engulfed the school in recent times.
Speaking on their behalf, a leader of the ERC, Hassan Soweto heaped blame on the lawmakers, saying that approving such an amount as fees meant insensitivity to the plights of those who elected them into office.
He also described Governor Fashola as inhumane, saying if he could take such a decision, it means he is indirectly telling the poor in the state who are the true voters to look for a replacement for the All progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming elections in the state.
He added that the House showed its one-sided method of reasoning when it recently blamed only the students for the violent protest that engulfed the school last month over the management’s decision to close the institution’s portal against registration of courses.
The students had destroyed school properties and vandalised a car belonging to Vice Chancellor, Prof. John Obafunwa after they pelted him with stones. The ERC official said from the resolution of the House, the lawmakers had proven Lagosians right that they are just put in the House to carry out the governor’s biddings.
According to Soweto, the protest by the students became a riot after the vice chancellor kicked a female student, who was among those that knelt down to beg him to reopen the portal.
“He almost crushed another one with his car, as he zoomed off from the place where the students were begging him. The next day when the protest began, it was peaceful until a LASU marshal (security) shot at a student”, he said.
“That was on 23rd January. The House showed its partiality by first passing a six-point verdict on the students before setting up a committee to investigate the crisis. The House started in error and was prejudiced”.
Furthermore, Soweto said the new calendar announced by Sola Fosudo, the institution’s director of information, has been planned to keep the 100, 200 and 300L students at home till April while only final year students would continue.
“The management has an ulterior motive asking those paying the obnoxious amount [to remain] at home. Fresh students have been told to start registration in March and go ahead with matriculation. The current students of LASU have spent about 16 months at home and the management wants them to spend two years. This is not fair.
“We believe that if the root cause of the protest is to be properly investigated, the government would realise that the school fees hike was the primary reason. Before now, it had not been a problem for the students to register”, he said, adding that LASU has become the most expensive state institution across all states of the federation and students have not been able to pay.
He slammed the national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu over a statement he made in Sierra Leone while being honoured with a doctorate last week, saying his party has a free education policy for the people and states which they govern.
“This is a very big lie that Tinubu told before the entire world. We think this is hypocritical and if this government is serious, it would treat LASU with care”, he said.
A leader of JAF, Abiodun Aremu expressed the support of his organisation for the action of the students because it believes the right to education is non-negotiable.
“The only thing we want to say here is the need for a larger struggle to save education”, he said, adding that many politicians in the state would not have been where they are today if they did not enjoy good education policies.
He said his organisation does not believe in using elections alone to change bad leadership. According to him, the powers to change leaders and their actions rest on the people and until the people realise this, they would continue to be used by the politicians.
The deputy speaker of the House and the other lawmakers had to rush into the Assembly complex when the students continued with the curses.