Kaduna varsity students storm government house over tuition fees hike

Fee increase ill-timed, says ex-guber hopeful
Thousands of Kaduna State University (KASU) students took to the streets yesterday to protest against the increase in tuition fees by the state government.

With placards and fresh leaves, the protesters sand slogans and barricaded the road leading to the Government House. Some more aggrieved students sat on the road to the entrance of Kashim Ibrahim House and demanded Governor Nasir el-Rufai to come out and address them on the increase in the tuition fees.

Armed policemen were seen with the students to ensure that hoodlums did not hijack the protest. One of the student leaders, who gave his name as Tijani Musa, said: “We decided to embark on this street protest, so that the government will listen to us and reverse the increase in our school fees, which is by almost 400 per cent.

“Just few weeks ago, our parents were sacked from their various places of work, and some of them who were traders, their shops were destroyed by the governor.”

FORMER governorship aspirant in the state, Shuaibu Miqati, kicked against the tuition fee hike in KASU, describing it as ill-timed and ill-advised.

According to him, the decision was unwarranted, especially coming from a government that promised compulsory, qualitative, free education at some levels and affordable education at others, especially at the tertiary levels.

Miqati, in a statement made available to journalists in Kaduna yesterday, called on prominent people in the state to support education funding.

“Parents and children, particularly of the less-privileged, had welcomed this promise with enormous joy and happiness, particularly when they saw one of the governor’s sons being enrolled in a state-run school.”

“Citizens of the world are just coming out of the economic meltdown occasioned by the vagaries of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) as a result of which Nigeria’s economy went into recession. Our state has been sadly ravaged by activities of bandits and killer herdsmen,” he said.