Why Abia varsity boils

Events of last week will remain historic in the annals of Abia State University Uturu, as students of the ivory tower took to the streets to protest the recent hike in their school fees. (Pictures show Abia Varsity Logo (left), Abia state map (down right) and Chief Theodore Orji, governor of the state (down left)

During the two-day peaceful protest, both academic and other activities in the university community literally came to a halt.

On the first day of the rampage, students reportedly barricaded the institution’s main gate, disrupted an on-going senate meeting as they stormed the school's senate building and besieged the vice-chancellor's office. This situation almost threw the entire campus into chaos as people scampered for safety in different directions.

In the same vein, the university's plant house, as well as her Micro Finance Bank, was shut down by the irate students thereby causing panic among the bank's customers and the university community at large.

On the second day of protest, the students made real their threat to shift the battle ground to Umuahia, Abia state capital. That day, business activities in Okigwe, a neighboring town, were grounded as the rampaging students, decked in black attires, marched through the quiet town. In the ensuing pandemonium that engulfed the town, commercial vehicle operators became the worse hit as the students hijacked their vehicles and compelled them to ferry them to Umuahia.
Trucks, motorbikes, and, indeed, anything vehicle were seen conveying students in droves to the seat of government under compulsion by the protesters even as some students who could not be crammed into the available vehicles decided to make the over 20-kilometres journey on foot.

Although claimed to be peaceful by the leadership of the Students Union Government (SUG), an atmosphere of uncertainty and confusion griped the university community as tension continued to run high concerning the outcome of the escalating march which did not exceed the school premises on the first day. Perhaps, the more reason tension was high was the fear that the protest could turn bloody, particularly, in Umuahia as it could be hijacked by miscreants, unscrupulous and criminally-minded elements.

Meanwhile, what started as a peaceful protest almost ended on a sad note the second day as a batch of the rampaging students returning from Umuahia was reportedly intercepted by the police in Okigwe for allegedly smashing the windscreen of a police vehicle. According to SUG president, about 30 students were detained by the police who had earlier fired several canisters of tear gas at the students before carrying out their arrest.

Apparently dissatisfied with the response of the state governor, Theodore Orji who is, also, visitor to the university, the students' leadership vowed to embark on indefinite strike Governor Orji had promised to look into the grievances of the students after due consultations with the university authorities. To make real their threat which some dismissed as mere attention-seeking strategy, the students resisted the university workers for two days from entering into their offices, insisting on unconditional reversal of hiked fees to statusquo. As if that were not enough, examinations which had started a day earlier before the protest were also put on hold as the students boycotted them.

To save the situation from degenerating into anarchy and mayhem, the university management acted wisely by ordering all students to vacate the campus immediately. Thus the institution was shut down indefinitely. At the moment, the citadel-of-learning that prides herself as the best state-managed university in the West African sub-region now looks deserted as both students and staff stay at home waiting for directives from 'above'.

It will not be out of place, at this point, to x-ray the agitation of the students, the defence of the school authorities and the allegation(s) leveled against the state government. Just before the hike, students in regular program were paying tuition fees of N28, 000.00. This sum is currently jacked up to N63, 000.00 minimum. Those in distance program who used to pay N40, 000 will now cough up to N70, 000.00. Post-graduate students are to pay N90, 000.00 as against N50, 000.00 they hitherto paid.

To the students, the increment which is by 110% is not only arbitrary but a shameless display of insensitivity and callousness on the part of the authorities. The argument is that the management, in the first instance, should not have settled for the option of raising the school fees since it was given two other options of either retrenching one third of the staff or paying only two third of the workers' salary.

In reaction, however, management of the university maintain that the fees hike was informed by the reduction of monthly subvention to the institution from N140 million to N100 million. It adds that the only option without much damaging effects was the school fees increase, adding that some of the staff, also, have their children or wards in the school. The thinking here is that it is much better to share the burden across than throw some people out of job.

Meanwhile, insinuations and rumor mills in certain quarters of the state, especially, among the students reveal a permutation that the cut in the university's monthly subvention was to enable the state recover from the heavy financial wounds allegedly incurred during the governor's protracted Election Petition Tribunal legal tussle. This allegation has been vehemently denied both by the university management and the state government. Instead, government said the subvention cut was occasioned by the global economic crunch.

As the veracity or otherwise of the claims and counter claims are yet to be investigated, perhaps, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-corruption bodies, what bugs the imagination of those who still have a date with integrity is the timing of the increment.

The truth is that cutting of subvention of some government parastatals and hiking of school fees barely three weeks after the appeal court ruling on the governor's election petition tend to cast some doubts on the claims of innocence by government. This is, moreso, considering the fact that the global financial melt-down, as advanced by government, is a world-wide economic diarrhea that is not peculiar to Abia, the supposed God’s Own State, alone.

The argument is, why should Abia blaze the trail in fees hike when such arbitrary increment is yet to be effected by contemporary universities even in non-oil producing states, let alone a Niger Delta state with its additional 13% oil derivation fund.

It will only be necessary, at this point, to remind our policy makers and those in positions of public trust that education is so important an institution to toy with, given its pivotal role in the development of any society. The implications of having our students idling away at home when, of course, they are supposed to be in school is, obviously, disastrous. It is no patriotism for anyone to bring down Abia State University, Uturu from its enviable position for reasons yet to be adduced.

The university authorities, the government, the students leadership, representatives of parents, Ndi Eze and all stake-holders in the education industry should, as a matter of urgency, come to a round-table and negotiate a tuition fee acceptable to all the parties to save the education sector of the state from imminent collapse.

Scripted by: Steve Oko (08038725600), a journalist based in Okigwe, Imo state-Nigeria.