Bayero University Has Done It
Eight months ago in November 2022, like Paul the Octopus, I predicted on my LinkedIn account that “With the incessant strikes and the shape the discourse is taking, there’ll soon be a spike in Nigeria’s public universities’ tuition (perhaps getting to that of its private counterparts) with the aim of revamping the system and assuring quality education.” I wrote, “this is when university education won’t be for every Musa, Bimpe, and Chijioke — and rightly so.” I posited that the reason university education is still affordable to everyone is that “the government funds (read: subsidizes) it at the expense of the basic education — which is supposed to be its sole priority.”
Fast forward to June 2023, I also expressed my concerns in an explainer titled The Implications of the Nigeria Student Loan Bill that “Nigerian students seem to have misunderstood the implications of the recently signed Student Loan Bill by the president,” for if they had a clear understanding of that Act, “they would not have celebrated and welcomed the idea.” Why shouldn’t they have? Because “With the implementation of the Student Loan Bill, it is likely that tuition fees will be introduced, resulting in students no longer paying what they currently do.”
In simpler English, the Nigerian government is banking on that Act to bring to a halt the subsidy on university education. My major concern about the Act, as I wrote, was that “considering our poor track record of policy implementation, there is no guarantee that this policy will be effectively managed.” I wrote that with TradeMoni and NPower in mind as similar flawed initiatives to cite.
This is why coming online to see Bayero University’s circular on new school fees schedules and the resulting uproar from students and parents did not come as a shock to me. It is top universities in the North reviewing their school fees schedules: at least that of BUK and UNIMAID are official; ABU’s are in the offing; and UNIJOS’ are still speculations.
While I don’t have a problem with these developments in principle, I believe it is important for Federal and State Governments to also review salaries of workers by topping up the minimum wage by 100% or more. Given the high cost of living and the fact that salaries aren’t commensurate with the current standard of living, it is only insensitive that universities are increasing tuition at this point.
May God help Nigerian parents and independent students (seeing themselves through school) in navigating these challenging times!
