LASU FEES REDUCTION: BEFORE STUDENTS START REJOICING. Written by Saint-Olawale Jimoh

    The recent reduction in tuition fees of the State-owned Lagos State University surely call for celebrations among the students. This is understandable given the fact the battle that lasted for almost nine months eventually ended in their favour. So you can't blame the students for throwing a party and doing a thorough boogie down when the news broke out.
 But the real question the students should have asked Fashola, instead of celebrating, is until when because quite frankly, this sudden decision calls for suspicion?

   The decision to return to the old fees regime of about N25,000 (minimum) was announced by Governor Babatunde Fashola at the 19th graduation/convocation of the school which held at the main campus, Ojo last Thursday, after almost two years of running battle, punctuated by agitations and protests by students, lecturers and non academic staff. Before now, the fees were raised to N192,000 for arts courses and N350,000 for sciences (medicine). The announcement by Fashola while delivering his address at the convocation sparked off wild jubilation among the students and staff of the school.

 Indeed, the reversal is a good development no doubt but I personally see this gesture as a ‘Greek gift’ which shouldn't be trusted. Anyone familiar with trend of events lately in this nation will undoubtedly agree the decision is politically motivated and aim at appeasing parents and students who might have resolved have resolved to vote APC out of Lagos in forthcoming due to its anti-people policies. I had written earlier that these armies of boll weevils and termites called APC can do anything to get people's votes in the forthcoming general elections. The gesture is momentary, deceitful and politically-induced rather than being in good faith.

 My advice to the students is to postpone their celebrations until after February next year. If APC wins Lagos State and the fees remain untouched then, they could go about celebrating the fees reduction but right now, it would be unnecessary!

 On the contrary, if Fashola had done it in good faith, why has he ignored public outcry in the first instance, thereby causing irredeemable losses in the system? How is he going to make up for students who were unable to attend school for the three years that the policy had been in place?

I think Fashola needs to tender an apology to the students, who had been victims of school fees policy for the past three years, and their parents for the trauma they went through.