Incessant increase of tuition fees in Nigeria

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Education is a worthy legacy that any reliable parent can give to their wards in order for them to succeed in life and become self-dependent.

Some of our leaders in this country benefitted immensely benefited from Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s free education while he was the first Western Prime Minister in the country.

In recent years, the University of Ibadan (UI) has raised tuition fees from N30,000 to N100,000. Many parents raised objections to the decision at that time. Yet, another increase that amounted to N400,000 per session was recently announced by the UI Governing Council.

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Without an iota of doubt, this will definitely inflict much pain on many parents, especially those who have three or four children in UI. The pertinent question I’m asking is this: can Nigeria develop where many students drop out of school because their parents are unable to afford tuition fees in various federal universities in the country?

Those who graduated years back are still struggling to obtain jobs that are not available anywhere in the country. The rate of crime is high.

If thousands of youths drop out of the various federal universities, there would be proliferation of nefarious activities across the country. The truth of the matter is that Nigerians are earnestly waiting for the actual fulfilment of the promise made by President Bola Tinubu during his presidential campaign, that he would restore normalcy in the country (E lo fi okan ba le, a ma gbe wa le!).

I, therefore, urge all the stakeholders in education sector to appeal to federal universities’ Governing Councils to consider the plight of poor parents across the country and stop the incessant increase of tuition fees.