Protest: We can’t breathe under high tuition fees, power outage — UI students

IBADAN—THOUSANDS of students of the University of Ibadan, UI, Oyo State, yesterday, staged a protest against a hike in school fees and a power outage at the school.

As early as 8 a.m., the angry students moved in large numbers to all the entrances of the institution and blocked them. Both academic and non-academic staff members were locked outside the gates.

After blocking all the entrances, they moved from one faculty to another to ensure that academic activities were totally paralyzed.

They were chanting songs, warning their colleagues never to attend lectures, that doing so portends danger.

The students, who also warned that there should be no video recording of the protest, explained that the school management has not been fair to them.

Some of them, who spoke to Vanguard, said there were three issues, which compelled them to troop out.

A male student said: “We are protesting against injustice and insensitivity of the state and 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?

“Second, 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. Even feeding is difficult and we are still trying to wriggle out of this and they are bringing hike in tuition fees. We cannot take this any longer. Enough is enough.