Get Guardian on GoogleAmid mounting protests over soaring tuition fees across Nigerian campuses and growing calls for legislative intervention, the President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Akinteye Babatunde Afeez, has urged students to organise peaceful protests against arbitrary fee increases and hold their leaders accountable for defending their interests.
Afeez alleged that some Students’ Union Government (SUG) presidents had reached agreements with their institutions’ managements to support tuition fee increases in exchange for personal benefits.
In a statement yesterday, the NANS president said some union leaders had agreed to back the increments after managements promised to increase their allowances or union dues, while others were allegedly offered personal financial inducements to secure their cooperation and prevent opposition to the hikes.
He said: “In most of these cases, I discovered that some SUG Presidents had already reached agreements with management to support the increment, simply because their own SUG allowances or dues would be increased.
“In other cases, management allegedly promised certain SUG leaders personal financial benefits in exchange for their cooperation”.
He urged students to mobilise and collectively express their opposition whenever school authorities announce fee increases, insisting that peaceful protests remained a legitimate way of demanding a reconsideration of such decisions.
He also advised students to place their SUG presidents at the forefront of engagements with managements and collectively demand a reversal of proposed increases.
“Put your SUG President at the forefront and collectively demand that management reconsider the decision. Let your voices be heard,” Akinteye said.
The NANS president stressed that students should not be excluded from decisions affecting their welfare, adding that their representatives had a responsibility to ensure their concerns were communicated to school authorities.
Describing the alleged conduct as unfortunate, he reminded student representatives that their primary responsibility was to defend the interests of those who elected them.
“The SUG is established to protect and represent the interests of students, not to negotiate away their welfare for personal benefits,” he stated.
He warned SUG presidents against using their positions to bargain against the interests of the students they represent, insisting that their loyalty must remain with their constituents.
“To every SUG President out there, remember that your loyalty should be to the students who elected you. You cannot collect a mandate from students and use it to bargain against their interests,” he said.
He described student leadership as a responsibility that demands accountability, urging union representatives to remain committed to protecting the welfare of students.
His comments come amid growing concerns over rising tuition fees and other compulsory charges in public tertiary institutions, with students in several universities and polytechnics protesting increases introduced for the 2026/2027 academic session.
The fee hikes have also raised questions about the financial implications for the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), as experts say higher institutional charges could translate into increased loan applications and a greater funding burden on the agency.
Checks on the agency’s dashboard revealed that as of October 30, 2026, it had disbursed N372.62billion in student loans to 1,659,853 beneficiaries across 319 tertiary institutions since the launch of its student loan scheme in May 2024.
With the Fund expected to cover approved institutional fees for eligible students, they lamented that any upward review of charges could increase the amount required to support beneficiaries and place additional pressure on the Fund’s resources.
Findings revealed that among the institutions that have faced complaints over increased charges are Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Niger Delta University, Bayelsa; Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Ogun; Delta State University, Abraka; Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti; Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba; and Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja.
The controversy over rising institutional charges has also attracted the attention of the House of Representatives, which recently called on the Federal Government to halt recent fee increases across public tertiary institutions.
The resolution followed a motion sponsored by Ifeoluwa Ehindero, who warned that increases of more than 100 per cent in some institutions could undermine the objectives of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
The lawmakers expressed concern that sudden increases in tuition fees and other mandatory charges could create disparities in the allocation of education loans and make higher education increasingly inaccessible to students from low-income families.
They noted that NELFUND was established to provide interest-free loans to eligible students, enabling them to pursue tertiary education without financial constraints.
However, the lawmakers argued that the loan scheme was designed around existing tuition benchmarks and institutional cost structures, warning that arbitrary increases could undermine its sustainability and effectiveness.
The House consequently urged the Federal Government to consider increasing financial subventions to public tertiary institutions to reduce their dependence on internally generated revenue from student charges.
It also called on the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission to engage institutional managements with a view to suspending the increases and reviewing tuition structures in line with prevailing economic realities.
The House further mandated its committees on University Education, Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education, and Federal Colleges of Education to investigate the extent and justification for the reported increases
