Senate intervenes to avert crisis in tertiary institutions over fees hike

By YANGE IKYAA

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Wednesday said that the Senate will intervene to avert possible crisis over allegations of hike in registration fees by some tertiary institutions particularly in the northern part of the country.

Lawan stated this while receiving in audience at the National Assembly a delegation of the Coalition of Northern Groups Student Wing (CNG-SW) led by its national coordinator, Jamiu Aliyu Charanchi.

He also underscored the importance of education to any society and promised that the Senate would swing into action by engaging relevant authorities with a view to preventing anything that could cause disruption in the learning process in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

According to him, “education is the bedrock for any nation, society or community to develop and any society that does not prioritize education is going to suffer stunted development and the repercussions of not educating citizens are better imagined because it will not only lose the human resources that you need for development but some of these people will turn into other alternatives that are not desirable.

“I believe at this moment, it (hike in fees) is very unnecessary but I also believe that government must prioritize education and what that means is not only to establish the Institutions but to support our students all the way.

“As a Senate and indeed as members of the National Assembly representing you, we are going to take this matter very seriously. We are going to look into it very seriously and closely and expeditiously and we want to find a solution to it.

“We want you to be in school to learn and we want you to be productive when you are through with your training and therefore it is the responsibility of government in the first place.

“We cannot run away from providing education to our citizens particularly those who cannot afford it because their families are not that well to do.

“This is an opportunity for me to appeal to our state governments across the country to continue to support education of our citizens seriously by providing them necessary scholarship and giving them in time when they will be very helpful.

“Here at the Federal level, the Senate will work hard to ensure that we do something that will change the narrative.

“It is not going to be just increase or hike in registration fees and maybe only 20 or 25 percent of the students will be able to pay and the rest will be at home. That is running away from the responsibility of providing education.

“I want to assure you that we are going to swing into action immediately and we will do whatever is necessary to make sure that you don’t suffer any financial increase that will stop you from continue with your education.”

Earlier, the leader of the group, Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, said their mission was to register their concerns over reports of impending plans by both the Federal and state governments to commercialize education.

They alleged that some institutions, particularly in the northern part of the country, were reported to have doubled their registration fees.

“It is in line with the above that we at the CNG’s Student wing request the quick intervention of your esteemed office and appeal to you on behalf of the millions of Nigerian students and their families to see to the reversal of the hike which will enable students from poor and marginalized families have access to tertiary education,” the group said.