…says increase in tuition fees, prices of goods portends danger
By Linda Musa
The organised labour has advised the Federal government to reverse the current tuition fees increment in the tertiary and secondary schools, warning that it portends great danger for Nigeria as a nation.
Labour also said the alarming increase in prices of good and services in the country and the hardship it cause shows that government did not plan before pronouncing it policies. It therefore asked government to reverse some if the polcies and do the needful before reintroducing them.
Speaking to SUNDAY NIGERIANS TRIBUNE, NLC Head of Information, Comrade Benson Upah, said; “Both the increases in tuition fees and skyrocketing prices goods portend tragedy. Ordinary Nigerian citizens are being pushed from left, right and centre by the government and its policies and there is no respite. This is not good. It is like we are about to have a country without citizens.
“The government apparently did not plan before it took the decisions it took. Because whatever it is doing now is an afterthought. Right now the government is taking the Organised labour and entire citizens for granted, and the citizens are not happy at all.
“We in the NLC has had time to tell the government not to mistake the quietness of workers and Nigerians at large for acceptance to its draconian policies. The silence of labour and am sure Nigerians at the moment on these issues is like the quiet before a storm breaks out.
“For those in the tertiary institutions increase tuition fees, they are doing it at the instance of government. Before now they didn’t increase any school fees. So we are saying no to the fees increase in the education sector. These actions of government is not acceptable to us. We wonder why government is comfortable with its policies that have caused these increases. We wonder why it does not bother about the capacity of the citizens to bear the pain and suffering it dishes to poor Nigerians.
“What the government should do now in our own view is to reverse itself. Do the needful before making these polices that have turned Nigerian to a place of suffering and pain.”
On his part, the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), said; “It is very unfortunate that this is happening. Some of us in the trade unions, particularly in the education sector saw this coming when they started talking about student loan. The tuition fees increases in the tertiary institutions is also now seen in the secondary schools, the unity schools own by government itself. The increase is right now about 100%.
“So I will again say that this is very unfortunate because a country like Nigeria with our poverty level, I think it’s best there is a sector government need to invest and should not toy with, and that sector is education. In fact I have never seen a country or economy that goes 100% free market economy. Education is a social service sector and one should expect that the government subsidize education for its citizens, to enable its citizens acquire education to the level they will become productive citizens to the nation.
“But unfortunately what we are having is a gradual removal of what one can liken to subsidy in education. So these actions of government literally means gradual removal of education from the reach of the poor citizens. Because I don’t see a family in Nigeria that is on the current minimum wage can afford to send his or her children to secondary schools, let alone the tertiary institutions.
“So government should not toy with education. Education should continue be made accessible to every citizens in the country that desires to get education. And you cannot achieve making education accessible by increasing fees beyond the affordable capacity of the citizens. So government should reverse the increases and ensure that education is made affordable to Nigerians.
“That Student Loan is not going to effective. Government should rather make education affordable, ensure the fees are low and then fund education. Because if there are sectors in Nigeria economy that should be subsidized, education should be one of them.”
