Posted by By Abimbola Akosile on
Human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, yesterday descr-ibed the recommendation proposed by a Comm-ittee of Pro-Chancellors of 33 Federal Universities that the Federal Government reintroduce tuition fees as a recipe for chaos and instability, which will inhibit the overall development of Nigeria's educational system.
Human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, yesterday descr-ibed the recommendation proposed by a Comm-ittee of Pro-Chancellors of 33 Federal Universities that the Federal Government reintroduce tuition fees as a recipe for chaos and instability, which will inhibit the overall development of Nigeria's educational system.
Fawehinmi in a statement issued in Lagos, said that the planned tuition fees was against the Constitution Section 18 of which enjoins government to work towards making tertiary education free. "The decision of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors to introduce tuition fees in the Federal Universities is a dangerous one", he said.
He said the money that should have been used to give free tuition to poor students from poor homes has now been confirmed stolen by many public officers and politicians in power in virtually all strata of governance in Nigeria. "In most cases, the stolen money has found its way into foreign countries to enrich the economies of those countries including the development of their education, to the detriment of our own country's educational advancement".
According to him, "the statistics of the social strata of the University citizenry in this country has confirmed over the years that most of the students in all tertiary institutions in Nigeria whether Federal or State-owned are from poor homes. At a time when government policies and programmes have further pauperised most parents in the country, it is wicked in the extreme for the Pro-Chancellors who belong to the upper crust of the Nigerian society to come up with a decision to introduce tuition fees which will further exacerbate the plight of these students from poor homes.
"In the long term, it is the society that suffers because ability in terms of brilliance is not the preserve of rich students from rich homes. Indeed, the poor students from poor homes are generally more intelligent, more hard-working and more focused than their counter-parts from the sophisticated upper crust homes of our society.
From the standpoints of the Constitution, the economy and the society, the decision is a disaster, which can only be averted by a rescission of that decision. To implement it, is to invite instability at a time when the entire polity is visibly unstable. Definitely, the Pro-Chancellors were not rational in taking that decision.
"Are the Pro-Chancellors blind to the happenings in the country in this respect, or are they deaf to the cries of the misery and groaning pain of poverty of the parents of poor students from poor homes?", Fawehinmi asked, and added, "surely, the introduction of tuition fees proposed by the Pro-Chancellors has insulted God.