OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR FASHOLA BY NURUDEEN YUSUF TEMILOLA

Below is a letter writing by the President of Lagos State University (LASU) Students’ Union, sent to Governor Raji Fashola of Lagos State.

Sir, your ability to do some things that are mundane to you and reasonable to the people vindicates you as a leader. Education is the superstructure that all other infrastructures can be built upon. Sir, when these roads are due for rehabilitation, shall we turn to the whites again? Prophet Muhammed and Jesus Christ never built any infrastructure, yet they linger in the mind of the people today. They have been able to dig deep into the people’s consciousness till date because they have taken their time to educate the people. Ditto to Obafemi Awolowo.

Lagosians and Nigerians should not continue to be impoverished for reasons that the poverty of the mind and access, significantly information, are the utmost. The LASU fee hike, an ugly phenomenon has dealt a huge blow to the future of Lagosians and Nigerian youths. It negates the founding ideology of this great citadel of learning; which is- ACCESSIBILITY.
Your Excellency, you called for a proposal of how much we can AFFORD. The total breakdown of the fees was examined, and some unnecessary fees were expunged. We discovered the government’s mendaciousness, and decided to embark on peaceful marches to sensitize the public and also demand that our school fees should be reduced as proposed by the leadership of the Students' Union.
On different occasions the men of the Nigerian Police attacked, intimidated and harassed our students. They shot teargas and bullet at us, in their bid to disperse us, some student were arrested and arraigned before the Magistrate Court, Ikeja, while some were hospitalized. Despite all these, we defy all odds to exercise our inalienable rights as provided in Section 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, because we are fighting a just cause.
The Lagos State Government resolved on the report of the Ad-hoc Exco Committee on review of LASU fees to approve the reduction of LASU fees ranging from 34% to 60%. We sincerely appreciate His Excellency Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola’s unrelenting commitment and development of Lagos State University.  We key into His vision of not making an average graduate from LASU clueless, the vision to sort Lagos State University from the chaffs, the passion to rescue LASU from the‘glorified secondary school status’, and enable it interact with the town.
However, on Paragraph 8 of the Resolution of the Government, Line II some of the charges included “can still be reduced on compassionate grounds we demand that the government reduces the fees on compassionate considering the breakdown of the fees”.
Sir, with the reduction, the fee still ranges between N133, 250 – 175,750 for Medicine, N106,750 – N140, 750 for Law, N96, 750 – N135, 750 for Science, N86,750 – 130,750 for Social Sciences and N76, 750 – 115, 750 for Arts to mention a few. This does not include accommodation, fee and other expenses incumbent on us students, and in Lagos State to be specific.
The fee regime is contrary to the ruling party’s All Progressive Congress manifesto that promised free and qualitative education. In fact, on Febuary 15, 2014, at the Njala University in Sierra Leone, the National leader of the party and former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu upon receiving an award of Honourary Doctorate Degree of Civil Law, Honoris Causa said the following:
“We found the APC so that Nigerians from all works of life and social station might gather under one tenet to develop the nation on the basis of equity and shared prosperity. What we seek is a fair social compact so that we may avoid social calamity. A core element of our mission is to make all levels of education, from primary to university level accessible to all people, regardless of economic circumstances. To survive in the modern economy, education is a must. As such, responsible leadership must view education as a public right and no longer a luxury to be enjoyed only by those with the money to purchase it for themselves. Government must help financially those who can’t help themselves in this essential regard”.
We urge the Lagos State Government, the primus inter pares to show leadership by example upholding the core manifesto of the ruling party in Lagos. For the fact that,“He who does something through another person is deemed to have done himself”, as the Visitor and principal, you have been vested with the power of absolute ratification of the Governing Council’s decision.

Sir, we plead with you to help us prevail over the Governing Council to consider us on the grounds of what is reasonable and affordable by our students. We plead with you passionately for further reduction of the fee to be in tandem with the economic realities and give us the best legacy that can be handed over to generations yet unborn-Education.