![Students Relinquish The Right to Education in Niger State, as IBB University Hikes Tuition Fees, HOTPEN](https://hotpen.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ibb-scaled.jpg)
By Abubakar Akote
Many students, like a 21-year-old Bala Elizabeth Rachael, a 200-level student of Public Administration of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, would be left with no choice but to relinquish their right to education, because of the difficulty they would have to go through to pay the new tuition fees, announced by the Governing Council of the institution.
The university had recently announced a 50% hike of its school fees, as it sets to commence the 2020/2021 academic session, directing parents and Guardians to begin payment immediately.
According to the General Circulation, signed by the institution’s Registrar, Mallam Musa Ango Abdullahi, the indigene retuning students will now pay N67, 925.00 as against the usual N27, 000 while newly admitted indigene students are to pay N129, 675.00 as against the usual N53,000. For the returning non-indigent students, they are to pay N117, 325.00 while newly admitted students are expected to pay N201, 000 with the addition of an N20, 000 acceptance fee.
The situation of Bala, an indigene of Nasarawa State, who survives mainly on the trading of sachet water popularly known as “Pure Water” Recharge cards in school since she lost both parents was made worse with the increase. Remembering her parents, she said, “I would be left with no choice but to drop out of university.”
According to her, the mother, who was the main pillar of her education died in August 2019, the year she got admission into the university, while the father who helped her pay the school, fee at 200 level also left her with her two siblings, in June 2020 in a car accident.
Two of her siblings who are still in secondary schools also look up to her for assistance to swim in the oceans of current economic hardship.
The State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Science, and Technology, Professor Abubakar Baba Aliyu, told HotPen that the state government had resolved not to interfere in the matters of the institution, but promised to wade in if given the directive by Governor Abubakar Sani Bello.
Some of the parents who spoke on condition of anonymity lamented the hardship they would have to go through to pay their children’s school fees, going by the current economic situation in the country. “Even to eat now is becoming extremely hard. We may be left with no choice but to ask our sons and daughters to return home.” One of the parents said.
The President, Students Union Government of the institution, Comrade Jibril Muhammad Lwafu, appealed to Niger State Government to intervene and direct the institution to revert to the previous school fees.
He said adequate consultation was necessary by the university management before coming up with the decision, as an increase may cause many students to drop out, a situation capable of heightening the security problems facing the state and the country.