EXTRAVAGANT INCREMENT IN A.B.U TUITION: TOWARDS TURNING THE INDIGENT STUDENTS INTO DROPOUTS
Fellow ABUSITES ~ Distinguished Comrades, Greetings to you in the spirit of humanity, In the spirit of confraternity, In the spirit of sympathy, empathy and Constant camaraderie!!!
It is undoubted that by now, the news on the monumental and unprecedented increment in A.B.U tuition is no longer news.
Fellow Abusites ~ distinguished comrades, the Students’ Human Rights Club is not unmindful about the ongoing influx of public outcry against the aggrandizing tuition increment which is unexplainably disproportionate to our sense of reasoning and sense of understanding as students
It is worthy of mention that education is a right rather than a privilege and for us, the right to education is as sacred as the right to life among other constitutional rights
It is suffocating to just wake up and be greeted with the news heralding the supersizing tuition increment, though a reality, it appears more like fiction typical of a spontaneous daydream.
At this time, when students & parents are living at the mercy of ever-rising inflation, at this time, when life is becoming burdensome owing to the harsh economic realities, at this time when the majority of the citizenry is economically handicapped & broke, at this time, when people are faced with many sorts of trials & tribulations that are gingerly making life somewhat unfriendly,
Increment in tuition would only jeopardize if not outrightly halt the smooth study of many A.B.U students
This colossal increment is at its best a misfortune that if care is not taken will endanger & hinder the pursuit of many students towards achieving academic excellence
It is glaring that the underprivileged among the students are inundated and their studies would be frustrated and truncated
One needs not to be told about the resultant repercussion of this enormous increment, for the consequence would by far better imagined than expressed.
There is no gainsaying that the irreducibility of this unwanted increment would ultimately presuppose the non-return of many returning students and non non-admitting of many newly admitted students. Also, the irreversibility would equally serve as a disabler against the aspirations of many ABU aspirants now and in the future
It must be stated at this juncture that over fifty per cent of the A.B.U students belong to the category of the indigents and mandating them to cough up this astronomical amount as a tuition is almost akin to denying them the right to education.
Similarly, promulgating tuition that would make students pay through their noses is as good as preparing the hatching of more dropouts overnight
It, therefore behoves all student leaders in whatever capacity in the university to do away with cowardice and devil’s advocate and be ready to voice out and adamantly advocate for the review and reversal of this sky-high increment
There is no perfect time to make your voices echoed than now when the fate, dreams and ambitions of the people you are representing are at stake
To this end, the position of the students’ human rights club about the tuition increment is that the increment is ill-timed, premature and unlooked-for
Mubarak Ibrahim Ahmad is the SECGEN Students Human Rights Club, A.B.U Zaria.
