A major opposition party in Kogi State, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has decried the hike in tuition fees by the state tertiary institutions as “unreasonable.”
In a statement signed by the chairman of the party in the state, Alhaji Haddy Ametuo, a copy of which was made available to newsmen in Lokoja, the party stated that the N50,000 tuition fees for both students of Colleges of Education and Polytechnics recommended by the visitation panels to tertiary institutions would throw many students out of the schools.
Ametuo added that a situation where the state-owned university students would be asked to pay N100,000 as tuition fees would only amount to taking tertiary education beyond the reach of the poor.
Saying that some parents have more than a ward in these institutions and some students strive on their own to pay their fees, he explained that the former governor of the state, Prince Abubakar Audu, established the state university and polytechnic to bring tertiary education closer to the door steps of the masses, but the hike in tuition fees would defeat the purpose for which they were established.
Consequently, he is urging all well-meaning people in the state, leaders and traditional rulers especially, to prevail on the state’s government to drop the “unreasonable” policy before it throws the state into serious crisis.
