ASUU to clash with Fashola over tuition hike

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Nasir Fagge, has said that the union will resist the rise in tuition fee at the Lagos State University.

He added that the establishment of universities by the government should be for knowledge acquisition rather than for profit making.

While speaking at a symposium organised by the Education Rights Campaign group held at the University of Ibadan, Fagge said the hike in tuition fee would not take care of infrastructural demands in LASU but would deny children of the poor masses access to public education.

He said, “Universities are not commercial centres for internally generated revenues but knowledge production centres. The new fee introduced by the school would have come earlier than now but it was halted by the intervention of ASUU through a delegation led by Dr. Dipo Fashina.

“ASUU will not support hike in fees in any public university in Nigeria. The union’s final response will be determined by the outcome of the meeting of delegates sent to meet the visitor Governor Babatunde Fashola and the Vice-Chancellor of LASU, Prof. John Obafunwa.

The ASUU boss also called for a review of immunity clause in the Nigerian Constitution and exposure of corrupt public officers in order to reduce the cost of governance in the country.

He said, “The law which protects leaders from being prosecuted for stealing public money during their reign is against the masses. The law is against those who are daily suffering from the consequences of unchecked stealing and pilfering of the collective wealth of the nation.”

PUNCH