By Temitope Precious
The National Association of Ondo State students has frowned at a recent circular released by the management of Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba, asking students of the Institution to pay a reparation fee pegged at N20, 000.
The Ondo State-owned University had in a circular yesterday asked students to pay the amount as part of the criteria for resumption as the school is billed to resume academic activities on January 30, 2022.
It will be recalled that, the University was shut last year following a tough protest by students which led to the destruction of some of the University’s properties most especially valuables at the Senate building.
The protesting students were outrightly against the 'no school fee no registration' policy introduced by the management
In a statement jointly signed by the Association's Global President, Ogunga Mary Ibiyemi, Global General Secretary, Akinwalere Edward and Global Public Relations Officer, Asiru Olamilekan Lukman noted that the manage decision is uncalled for.
The statement reads in part, "The attention of the National Association of Ondo State Students has been drawn to the Circular released by the ADEKUNLE AJASIN UNIVERSITY, AKUNGBA AKOKO Management on the 13th of January, 2022.
The circular states that the school would be reopened for academic activities on 30th January, 2022 and subsequently approved some conditions for the resumption of academic activities; That all students must pay a reparation fee of twenty thousand Naira (N20,000) only before resumption, All students must pay all outstanding fees till date and any student who is unable to pay his/her school fees should request for leave of absence (LOA).
We would like to state that the association frowns at this decision as we have carried out our investigation and came to the realization that the damages done does not sum up to 2 Million Naira, and the protest escalated due to the school’s lack of crisis management, and we put it to the management to list out the damaged properties and it’s value.
"Recall that during Professor Femi Mimiko’s administration despite the protest and confrontation, he was able to calm and manage different daring situations between the students and the management and no reparation fee was paid.
"We would like to remind the management that the protest escalated when they brought up a rule of “no school fees, no exam” insisting on this without considerations before and after the incident shows that the management has no good intentions towards the students as they have spent 2 months and 27 days at home.
"We call on all concerned individuals and authorities to desist from plans to make some students school-dropout and we don’t expect reasonable individuals to agree to such decisions to make each students pay as much as 20,000 for a damage that is had been over hyped by the school authority. We would also want to state that students won’t need to apply for leave of absence (LOA) if all worker’s salaries are paid up to December, 2021.
"We put it to the management to list out the damaged property and it’s value to the public for them to see and we believe well meaning Nigerians will without doubt see that the management is trying to take advantage of the situations to rip off our already underpaid parents.
How are the management and the executive council expecting our parents to get such money in this trying time?
"The management must understand that we will not allow them take advantage of the unfortunate incidents to rip off students and our parents, we strongly believe that the management will listen to us and reduce the reparation fee without delay.
"We implore all students to remain calm while this is going on and we wish to reassure our commitment to further improve the general well-being of Ondo state Students"
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