BAUCHI: The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has reviewed an internal memo issued by the Registrar of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, conveying the approval of the Council for what they described as a callous and excessive increment in postgraduate fees.
This decision according to them, is no doubt despicable, a direct attack on education, and an onslaught on the aspirations of Nigerian students who intend to further their academic pursuit.
According to a Press statement by NANS signed and released by District Comrade Akinleye Babatunde Afeez, a casual glance at the approved fee structure shows how grave this is. Returning domestic postgraduates are being charged sums that are in the range of hundreds of thousands of naira, and fresh students are being charged amounts that render further study simply out of the question for the average Nigerian student.
Our international students do not fare any better, and their fees have been raised to levels that one can only call extortion. We want to know: what kind of management or council puts learning on the altar of greed?
To be clear, education, is a right, not a privilege or a commodity to be traded to the highest bidder. Any institution that forgets this fundamental truth forgets the very purpose education serves. The most sardonic part of it all is that those who threaten the educational system are the very ones who enjoyed free education in their days.
To be clear, the ATBU Council cannot, under any guise of internal revenue generation or instability, justify a decision that is so brazenly disregards the economic realities facing Nigerians today. Postgraduate study is an avenue for national development, not a gate kept privilege for the financially privileged few.
NANS further noted that going forward, we find it more troubling that a decision of this magnitude, capable of truncating the academic dreams of countless students, was arrived at and was communicated as a fait accompli, with no structure of consultation with the students’ union, the postgraduate student body, or any student representative structure. This is not how a responsible institution treats its own. It is an affront on a large scale”.
Consequently, NANS demands the immediate and unconditional reversal of this reviewed fee structure. We call on the Vice Chancellor and the entire Governing Council of ATBU to rescind this decision without delay and to initiate genuine, transparent engagement with postgraduate students before any future review is contemplated.
The Office of the Bursar, the DVC Academics, the DVC Admin, and all other principal officers copied on this memo must equally use their positions to press for a reconsideration that reflects fairness and compassion, not exploitation.
“At a time when the President of Nigeria, H.E. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has put in place the NELFUND scheme to make education accessible to every Nigerian, it is unpatriotic for the management or Council to threaten this initiative through an unjust upward review of fees.
To be clear, and without equivocation, the leadership of NANS will not watch in silence while the dreams of Nigerian students are priced out of existence. Should this obnoxious review remain in place, we shall be compelled to mobilise the full weight of Nigerian students, both within and outside ATBU, to resist its implementation”, they warned
Afeez stressed that, “the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) remains committed to advancing the interests of Nigerian students through quality representation and intellectual engagements.
Without compromise, we shall continue to speak for Nigerian students and continue to represent them at all levels. We shall continue to fight for our rights, and shall never be silent in the face of injustice”.
