Students of University of Port Hacourt are protesting over the hike in the university’s tuition fee and other levies

– The students have blocked all entry and exit leading into the school.

Another university in Nigeria might be shutdown  after University of Lagos was shutdown by authorites following protest from students of the school. Students of University of Port Harcourt have blocked all entry and exit leading into the school in protest of the hike in the university’s tuition fee and other levies.

The protest started as early as 5.00am barricaded all access roads leading to the institution, including the major East-West road and the Choba-Uniport road.

“we pay the highest amount of school fees in Nigeria. Among all the Federal Universities in this country, UNIPORT pays highest. They will still ask us to pay faculty dues, departmental dues, exam registration fees and many others. “We are sick and tired of all these payments.

They even went ahead to issue a deadline for these payments not considering that things are hard for our parents. “We decided to embark on this protest today because 1st semester exams are supposed to start today and what we have done is to stop it from holding,” a student of the university was quoted in the media.

Meanwhile, Dr. Williams Wodi, a Deputy Registrar and spokesman of the institution has reacted to the protest by the students. “What’s going on is that less than 2 percent of our students are protesting and are refusing to allow workers and other students to come into the campus to start their Exams or do their legitimate duties.

“We sensitized our students as far back as November 2015,that we are going to change the perception of University where students come school free and carry over all school fees from year one to the final year and they should pay what we gave as outstanding charges because we do charge school fees.

We told them that all returning students are to pay N45,000.That has been communicated through the school website,circular and the school bulletins and others. “When wanted to enforce the payment at the beginning of the session we saw that the compliance was very low the first deadline was 21 February 2016,we extended it to March 11,2016,we made it lecture free for all students to pay to pay.

We recorded some mileages. Then we extended it to March 30,2016.We still had some students who have not paid so we opened our portal on April 5 and for them to pay we still had problems with a couple of them and reopened it on April 6 and closed it on midnight of April 7.You can see that from November last year to February 12,March 11,March 30,April 5 and finally April 7 and 98 percent of students complied. About 2 percent of the students have not complied and they are the ones making heaven and earth meet.”

On the penalty for not paying, Wodi said: “My position is the position of the Senate of the institution.All those who are yet to pay by midnightof April 7,2016,will automatically carry over the semester not deregistered.” Asked if the UNIPORT would be ready to allow the defaulting students to write their examinations and pay later,Wodi said:

“No. The same Federal Government insisted,based on the negotiations between Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and other unions that if lecturers invigilate for exams they need to be paid.Where will the institution have money to pay invigilators? “Over the years parents and students have had the notion that students can pass through the institution without paying and and graduation they would pay.

The decision of the institution is a recent development.” Wodi argued that Nigerian parents had been spending N860 Billion as fees for their children and wards in Ghanaian Universities that cannot compare with some state Universities. But Andrew Ajayi, a former student Union leader who commented on faceoff between to students and school authorities for their insensitivity.

He  slammed argued that it was insensitive on the part of UNIPORT authorities to have increased the fees in January and  expect parents to pay in the month of January when parents and guardians have scarce resources after Christmas festivities.

Andrew Ajayi did not spare students who are protesting over school fees increase ranging between N45,000 and N70,000 including 50 percentage surcharge for deficit when they carry smart phones worth thrice the Amount of the fees.

The school authorities have denied N70,000’that was levied on students as alleged. He argued that between January to April parents should have struggled to pay,which they claimed that UNIPORT demands the highest fees among federal institutions.

Naij.com……

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