UNIJOS students protest fee hike

The students at the University of Jos (UNIJOS) are protesting a hike in their fees.

The students took to the streets of their campus on Tuesday, marching towards its administrative building.

John Onah, a 400-level communications student at the varsity, joined his aggrieved colleagues to hold up placards.

Speaking with TheCable Lifestyle, Onah said UNIJOS raised “from about ₦45,000 to ₦160,000 for returning students and ₦200,000 for new entrants”.

He said the students might embark on an indefinite protest if UNIJOS failed to revert the fees after their planned three-day demonstration.

“How do we get this money? When has education become a commodity? We do labourer jobs to make ends meet. But the management just jacked up the fees without considering the students,” Onah said.

“If the VC had these troubles during his time as a student, he would not be in office today. Why are they frustrating the last hope ordinary Nigerians have to educate themselves? They had a meeting and reduced it to ₦110,000.

“But when you analyse other additional fees, it still amounts to the same ₦160,000. Should we go into prostitution to pay? We are in class and cannot concentrate on our studies because we are constantly worried about our fees.

“Even at the former rate of ₦45,000, we could barely pay. We pay faculty charges, student dues, and departmental levies. We incur transportation costs. We are struggling to feed ourselves. Let the fees be reverted. It all we need.”

UNIJOS, with its hike, joins a growing list of federal universities that have raised their fees in recent months.

Others are the University of Lagos (UNILAG), the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Borno state, the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in Edo, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi and the Usmanu Danfodiyo University (UDUS).

Last Wednesday, some students of UNILAG also registered their anger during a protest.