By Yemi Monday
Leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has given both the Federal and State Governments in the country ultimatum to immediately halt the proposed increase in tuition fees or face the toughest and hardest mass protest by the over 20 million students across the country.
The students body warned that it would shut down Nigeria including the airports and seaports if the planned tuition hike goes ahead.
The ultimatum was issued on Thursday in Bauchi by the National President of the NANS, Comrade Usman Umar Barambu, while speaking at the 1st North-East Zonal Senate sitting of NANS held at the Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic (ATAP).
He said that the increase in tuition fees has negatively affected students particularly those who are from the poorest of the poor but managing and struggling to get to school.
Umar Barambu declared that “very soon we will give the directive on how to go about it. We are going to complete shut down the country, nothing is going to move until our demands are heard and granted.
“The tuition fees must be brought down to be commensurate with the present economic situation in the country, there is no money readily available, it is difficult for parents to raise the money now not talk about the new rate.”
The NANS President lamented that those who are supposed to raise voices against the planned increase are keeping quiet now because it is not in anyway affecting them.
According to him,”During the recent Naira notes crisis, some of the Governors rushed to the Supreme Court to halt its implementation and they won. Now, there are moves to increase the tuition fees but they are not talking because it does not affect them, their children are far away from the country.”
“Very soon, we will shut down the entire country, we will not block the highways because it is our poor parents that will suffer it. We will shut down all the airports across the country, that is where it will pain them most,” he stressed.
He said that the plan was hatched with some Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) collaborators, saying that the situation will be resisted by the entire students of the country who have been bashed and traumatised for a long time.
He then called on security agencies to advise the government on what to do in order to avert the dangers ahead if the tuition fees increase was implemented because according to him, “a frustrated student who cannot afford to pay school fees can be a willing tool to be used as a bandit to get satisfaction.”
