A school fee hike and other issues have been met with protests by thousands of University of Ibadan students.
Students who were obviously upset moved in large numbers to block all of the institution’s entrances as early as 8 a.m.
Both academic and non-academic staff were locked outside the gates.
They proceeded from faculty to faculty after barring all entrances to make sure that academic operations were completely stopped.
Students who vehemently objected to a video recording of the protest clarified that they felt unfairly treated by the school administration.
Some of them who spoke with Vanguard said three issues compelled them to troop out.
A male student said, “We are protesting against injustice and insensitivity of the state school authorities to our plight.”
“You can imagine the authorities saying they will be shedding power henceforth, which means there are days we will be in darkness. How do they expect us to study?”.
“Secondly, they have hiked school fees astronomically to an unimaginable proportion. Do they want us to abandon our studies? Our parents are saying there is no money. We are still attempting to find a way out of this—even with the difficulty of feeding—and they are raising tuition. We cannot take this any longer. Enough is enough”.
“The third issue is the victimization of some of our colleagues who protested last time. The police have arrested them and up to now, they are still being detained for saying no to injustice. They are hurting us and they don’t want us to complain.”
Three female students who are in science said the situation is worse for them as they have to pay through their noses.
One of them said when she gained admission, she paid around N78,000 but now she is asked to pay over N300,000; some are paying N200,000.
The event disrupted the early take-off of a programme scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Department of Economics, CBN Hall.
The students went to the premises and shut all the gates, while a few staff members who managed to trek from the gates scampered for safety.
