File photo: Protesters
Students of Niger Delta University have shut down the school who took to the streets in hot protest over a disagreement.
According to The Nation, the Bayelsa State-owned Niger Delta
University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, was on Monday, shut down by
students following what they described as outrageous increase in all
categories of fees in the school.
The aggrieved students were said to have shut the gate to the main
entrance of the school in Amassoma, Southern Ijaw, stopping vehicular
movement into the campus.
The protest, which coincided with an indefinite strike declared by
the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) reportedly, crippled
academic and social activities on campus.
The students were said to be angry over hike in school fees,
electronic course registrations and non-inclusion of students’
representation in decision-making.
The demonstration, which was led by the President of the Student
Union Government (SUG), Mr. Kemes Mitin, was said to be peaceful without
skirmishes.
The students lamented that the school authority was gradually
turning the state university into a private institution in its quest to
raise revenue.
For instance, they cried out that the electronic registration per course which was hitherto N1000 had been increased to N4200.
The demonstrators carried placards with messages such as, “NDU is not a private institution”, “we say no to increment of course registration” and “return e-pin for course registration to N1000”.
Confirming the demonstration, Mitin said the action was to
peacefully tell the school management to halt the increase because the
students could not afford them.
On the strike declared by ASUU, the Port-Harcourt Zonal Chairman of
the union, Prof. Beke Sese, confirmed that the zone including NDU fully
complied with the nationwide action.
Sese said: “My immediate job is make sure that all chapters join in the strike action.
We in the Port-Harcourt zone have intermittently warned government
in the past of some gross inadequacies in remunerations and
infrastructural development of the universities, including non-payment
of salaries.
“Just like the national body said, there shall be no teaching,
no examination and no attendance of statutory meetings of any kind in
any of our branches till government meets the union’s demands.”
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