OOU, medical students protest excessive tuition fees

The medical students said the school’s authority is ripping them off.

The medical students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State on Tuesday embarked on a protest against what they called excessive tuition fees.

The students stormed the House of Assembly located at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta with placards to register their grouse against the management of the institution

Their placards carried various inscriptions like “Injustice is cruel and it breeds anger”, “We will not pay illegal school fees”, “Stop this unnecessary student extortion”.

The President of the Medical Students Association of the institution, Yemi Adegbesan, told journalists that the Vice Chancellor of the school, Sabur Adesanya, asked them to pay an “extra two years illegal fee”.

He said that the medical school curriculum runs for six years, which automatically requires them to pay for six sessions with or without strike embarked on by academic or non-academic staff of the institution.

“Is Prof Saburi Adesanya above the law? He has refused to allow final year medical students from OOU do their induction just because he wants them to pay two extra school fees each,” Mr. Adegbesan queried.

He said the students should not be made to pay for the strikes embarked on by the various authorities of the school.

“This is a wicked illegality that is unprecedented in the history of university education in Nigeria. The students have extra time in school because of ASUU, SSANU, NASU and other union strikes,” the leader of protest said.

“We had on December 17, written a petition to the House on the issue but up till now, nothing has been done and that is why we are back,” he said.

Mr. Adegbesan pleaded with the Speaker of the House to urgently wad into the matter, saying “time is not on the side of the final year students”.

The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Suraj Adekanbi, while addressing the protesters assured them that the state will look into the matter with a view to finding a lasting solution to it.
He asked students not to take laws into their hands. He also told them not to allow themselves to be used by opposition in the state.

“In a democratic setting, processes are important than the outcome. We need to follow due process and you know there’s no way we can jump the gun,” the speaker said.

“If we are going to do something, it’ll not be done in haste; we have to involve the management staff of the university. I also have a brother in your school who is in his tenth year, so I understand your
plight but I want you to have confidence in us that we will do the right thing and everything will be done in accordance with the provision of the law,” the speaker said.