• Protest not at our instance: SU
• N5,000 exemption fee window grossly abused, says Dean, Student Affairs
By Toyeeb Abdulquadri
Students of Kwara State University, Malete snubbed the threats by the school authorities, staging a protest on Monday over what they described as ‘extortion’ in the guise of policy.
The student protesters, mostly of final year, were seen holding placards with messages such as “Stop extortion in KWASU”, “End KWASU extortion”, and “Say no to exemption fee from 5k to 20k.”
Our correspondent who was on ground at KWASU gathered that the protest is being held in light of the sudden increase of a fee called “exemption fee.”
The exemption fee, which is meant for final year students who cannot live in the hostel accommodation made compulsory on them by the school authorities, was recently increased from N5,000 to N20,000.
In a chat with this reporter, the Students’ Union spokesperson, Ajobo Temitope Muhammad said the protest was not organized by the student body.
He added that the Students’ Union had finally reached an agreement with the school management to revert the fee from N20,000 to N5,000 over the weekend.
He attributed the protest to delay on the part of the school management to reflect the new development on the students’ portal.
“Conclusion has already been reached concerning this particular fee. But because students have not seen the changes on their portal, they are holding the protest. The conclusion was that the fee will be reverted from N20,000 to N5,000,” the spokesperson said.
In his reaction, Dean of Students’ Affairs, KWASU, Prof. Mashood Jimba said the hostel accommodation fee for final year students is a policy of the National Universities Commission (NUC), adding that turnout for the payment of hostel on the part of students has been discouragingly low.
“It is quite unfortunate that our students went against the laid down rules. They believe they must fight to get their rights. Well, we were once like them but then we believed in dialogue. The truth about the compulsory school controlled hostels for fresh and final year students is that it is NUC policy that has been on the ground for years.
“It is a way of keeping the fresh students and final year students in the university controlled hostels. In the case of KWASU, students see the N5,000 naira exemption fee as a window to avoid taking the hostel. Out of 4,000 graduating students that we have in KWASU, less than 300 students picked up their hostels. So, we agreed to increase the exemption fee to force our students to pick up the school controlled hostels.
“As I am talking with you, we still have over 400-bed space not picked by our students, they are waiting for N5,000 naira window. The N5,000 naira has been abused and the school management decided to change it to N20,000 naira so that students would consider taking the school hostels rather than pay N20,000 naira.”
The Ravens NG, meanwhile, learnt that the reversal of the exemption fee to N5,000 has been effected on the students’ portal as of evening in fulfilment of the agreement reached with the Students’ Union.
