Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has reversed the increase of tuition fees for students of the Lagos State University (LASU) to N25,000.
Mr. Fashola made the announcement at the event hall on the campus, at the 19th Convocation Ceremony of the university.
The school fee increase, that sparked a series of protests by students since 2011 when it was announced, would have seen the students pay between N193,000 and N350,000.
The governor had come under widespread criticism for raising the fees, his critics pointing out he had himselfenjoyed free tuition as a student at the University of Benin in Edo State. Mr. Fashola justified his widely criticized tuition raiseson the necessity for infrastructural upgrades, but he failed to convince the students. They argued through aseries of protests against the hike that the State has enough facilities and resources to raise the standard of the institution and infrastructure to international standards without putting the burden on poor students.
During their numerous protests, the students wereattacked violently by State security agents on theorders of the government. One of those attacks took place right at the Governor’s office, where he reportedly turned his back on them and signaled the police guarding his office to teargas the demonstrators.
Announcing the sudden change of mind today, Fashola said the students had been “mature and civil” in their agitation for fee reversal and he thanked the institution’s Student Union for its handling of the disagreement.
“I want to appreciate the maturity of our students in the way they went about their agitation for reduction in their school fees”, he said.
“In the course of their protests, I invited them; they responded and we both arrived at a decision where the students submitted a position paper on what they feel should be recommended as fees.”
For his scheduled visit to the institution today, students had planned a protest to disrupt his speech, but the good news changed that.
The governor’s decision did however, cause an uproar at the convocation hall, and it took several minutes for security and protocol officers to restore calm to the area.