SPEC Rejects the Over 500% Hike in the Accommodation fee of OAU PG Hostel

The over 500% Hike in the Hostel Accommodation Fee of PostGraduate students at OAU is unacceptable

• The OAU management must immediately abolish this idea now
• OAU PG students must start to organize to demand a total reversal of the fee
• Free, functional,  quality education at all levels is non-negotiable

The Save Public Education Campaign (SPEC) rejects the over 500% hike in the accommodation fee of postgraduate students and the over 300% hike in that of undergraduate students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State. We condemn this insensitive act and call on the university management to abolish this idea immediately. Similarly, we call on the students of OAU to start organizing congresses to mobilise for lecture boycotts and mass protests to demand immediate and unconditional reversal of the new anti-student policies.

We are surprised by a recent circular released by the office of Vice Dean, Division of Students Affairs, dated 9th November 2023 announcing a new accommodation fee structure for the postgraduate students. According to the circular, postgraduate students will now pay N50,000 for 3-bedded and N80,000 for single-bedded instead of the initial N8,000 and N12,500, respectively. This hike represents about 525% and 540% hike in the hostel accommodation fee, respectively. This fee hike is coming after the increment in the school fees payable by the postgraduate students. Also, we can recall the resistance of the undergraduate students in October over the hike in undergraduates’ school and accommodation fees.

We consider this hike at this period as an onslaught on children of ordinary people already facing hardship due to the Tinubu economic draconian policies. Nigerians have already been hit by an over 300% hike in the price of PMS, which has resulted in more hardship and increased cost of living. What did Nigerians get in return? A paltry, temporal N35,000 wage award for federal workers with less than 5 of 36 states ready to implement something similar. More so, the education sector has continued to maintain steady deterioration while the Tinubu-led FG has continued to jettison this sector adamantly. This is evidenced by the introduction of a student loan policy instead of academic grants and scholarships to the students.

While other countries around the world are offering fee waivers, study grants, study with pay, tuition-free PG studies and other lucrative offers to further encourage researchers and boost the bank of knowledge of the nations, Nigerian institutions like the Obafemi Awolowo University are busy increasing tuition fees, accommodation fee and implementing other gross anti-students’ policies.

The Save Public Education Campaign hereby calls on the authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University to immediately abolish the idea of a fee hike now and revert the accommodation fee to the status quo Similarly, we call on the management to jettison the attempt to dislodge the postgraduate students in an attempt to fill the Murtala Mohammed Postgraduate Halls of Residence (MMPHR) with undergraduate students as it is being currently experienced over the past 2 sessions. We also see this as an attempt to force students to rent privately-owned hostel accommodations owned by the friends of the university dons at pocket-tearing prices. Hence, we demand that the university expand its public accommodation resources, build more hostel facilities, and ensure health compliance with the available ones.

In the same vein, we call on the occupants of the PG hall as well as all postgraduate students to commence the struggle to demand a total reversal of the hiked fee. This is a struggle for all and must commence immediately with a congress of postgraduate students to debate the hike in tuition and accommodation fees, among many other issues wrestling against the quality of postgraduate education in the university. Perhaps, if there were enough hostel facilities in good condition, Timothy Adegoke, a postgraduate student of OAU, wouldn’t have lost his life in a gruesome manner by owners of Hilton Hotels in May 2022.

While we continue to fight for improved welfare conditions under the various university management, we should not believe that any of their solutions will ultimately solve the fundamental problems facing public education. Many of these university managements are financially handicapped based on the meagre budgetary allocations to public education. This is why we must collectively fight and demand that at least 26% budgetary allocation of the nation goes to public education. Similarly, we should demand that the resources of every institution must be placed under the democratic control and management of the workers, students and community to guarantee accountability.  Free and quality education is possible only if we fight for it.

Damilola Owot

Organizing Secretary, Save Public Education Campaign (SPEC)