Less than 24 hours to the partial re-opening of the Lagos State University (LASU), aggrieved students of the institution are still kicking, saying issues that led to closure of the school about four weeks ago have not been resolved.
They came in multitude, carrying placards with various inscriptions, just as they sang defiant songs of all kinds. They
barricaded the entrance gate leading to the famous Textile Labour House, Agidingbi, which incidentally serves as the Lagos Bureau Office of Media Trust Ltd. The students said they gathered to send a strong signal to the government and concerned citizens that the troubled ivory tower may witness another round of crises if the management goes ahead with its partial re-opening plan on Monday, February 24.
The protesters, who gathered under the umbrella of the Save LASU Campaign Movement, a coalition of LASU students, Education Rights
Campaign (ERC), National Union of Lagos State Students (NULASS) and other radical groups and civil rights activists, claimed that many of them were denied the right to register and participate in the second semester examination, which went violent recently.
“We have a message for the Lagos State government. We have a message for the Lagos State House of Assembly. We have a message for the management of LASU. We have a message for the entire people of Lagos State and Nigerians in general: that come February 24, 2014,
all the students of LASU across all levels and departments shall be resuming for normal academic activities. The idea of partial
re-opening of the school for the 400-Level students will not work.
We are all going to resume!” Hassan Soweto, national coordinator, ERC, who led the protest, declared.
Addressing the students, secretary-general, Joint Action Forum (JAF), Comrade Abiodun Aremu, a veteran protester himself, urged them not to relent in the struggle, even as he described as inhuman, the astronomical hike in LASU fees, which he said made the school the most expensive state university in Nigeria.
Many of the students who spoke with Sunday Trust said there wouldn’t have been any need to protest if the school management had hearkened to their pleas on the 1,292 students who could not register before the closure of the portal.
“Is it not unbelievable that when we held the peaceful protest on January 22nd and pleaded with the vice chancellor, Prof. John Obafunwa to open the portal for just two hours, he refused? It is still the same VC that has found it easy to shut the school for over three weeks? So, which would have been better; opening the school portal or shutting down the school? We see the action of the VC as
unreasonable,” Ajibola Kayode, a 200-Level Political Science Education student said.
Continuing, Hassan Soweto said the remote cause of the crisis was the 2011 hike in school fees while the immediate cause is the
high-handedness of the VC who refused to listen to the pleadings of the students.
“It is true that the VC brushed aside some students who went to beg him. The VC is very dictatorial. Things degenerated because the VC refused to hearken to the pleas of the protesting students. The campus marshals were even the ones that triggered the crisis when they fired canisters at the students, even as security agents added to the trouble.’’
In a petition submitted to the State Assembly, the students alleged that the new academic calendar drawn up by the school simply shows how “deceitful, vengeful and insensitive the Prof. Obafunwa-led university management is.”
“This calendar announced by the university management on Monday, February 17, 2014, is unfair to majority of the students, especially those in 100, 200 and 300 levels. This is because instead of opening the university for all students to come in, register and write their examinations, the new academic calendar is contrived in such a way that only final year students will resume by February 24. Curiously, by March 10 to 13, screening exercise for fresh students will
commence while matriculation will take place on March 28, 2014,’’ part of the petition read.
Receiving the petition, Deputy Speaker of the House, Kolawole Taiwo told the students that the House would look into the crisis.
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