Traffic was
disrupted for several hours on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway on Thursday
as students of Lagos State University (LASU) barricaded the road in
protest against the recent increase in fees by the institution.
The placard-carrying students called on
the state government to reverse the increase to avert a breakdown of law
and order at the university.
Addressing the students, the student
union president, Akeem Durojaiye, said that the protest would continue
until the university rescinded the decision.
"We will continue to disrupt academic
activities at LASU. We will soon take the protest to the Governor's
Office in Alausa to drive home our demands," he said.
Timothy Ikenna, a 200-level Mass
Communication student, accused the state government of "contradiction by
claiming progressive credentials but treating students with disdain."
"Governor Fashola, who said he will
bring education to the doorstep of the common man at his second-term
inauguration, ought not to take such a policy decision.
"To ask the least student in the school
to pay a fee of ₦193,000, under the present economic condition, is not
bringing education to the common man,'' he said.
Celestine Okocha, a 200-level Political
Science student, said that the new fee regime was not in the interest of
the suffering masses.
"Clearly, the new fee regime is oppressive and it is as if the state government wants to prove Karl Max right," he said.
Mr Okocha said that a government that
was not properly implementing its own minimum wage policy did not have
the justification to demand parents pay huge amounts for their wards'
education.
Olatuju Azeez, public relations officer
of the students' union, said at the scene of the demonstration, that the
increase was unacceptable to them. He said that the students were ready
to sustain the demonstration until the government and the university
authorities heeded their demands.
"Since management will have us act
unruly by asking us to pay an outrageous fee, we will therefore convert
the school into a place where frivolous things are engaged in," he said.
The students converted the international
expressway to a playground for games such as soccer, dancing
competition and posing for photographs.
The Divisional Police Office in Ojo, M.A
Yusuf, a superintendent of police, said that his men had restored the
peace to the area.
He appealed to the students to allow
motorists to use the road undisturbed, adding that " no car or public
property was destroyed."
vain.'
