By Hosea Parah, Abuja

Following the alleged directive by the federal government through the National University Commission (NUC) directing vice-chancellors of public universities to review tuition fees upward, some universities have started the process of increasing tuition fees by 200 percent or more.

This means that the prospective students who are currently writing post-UTME examinations in their various federal universities of choice may pay between N200,000 to N300,000 when the new session begins in April this year.

This review may also affect state-owned universities some of which are already charging about N100,000 and more depending on the course of study.

Until now, the federal universities charge between N30,000 to N40,000 which many Nigerian parents and self-sponsored students were finding difficult to pay.

A credible source within the system who spoke to Daily Sun in confidence said, the development is beyond the management of the federal universities having been directed by the universities commission which must have abinitio been directed by the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu.

“My school management has just held a meeting over the planned increment of school fees in all the federal universities. Part of the reasons we were told, was the issue of our welfare and conducive learning environment for our students which the Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU) has been championing for some time now.

“The federal government is saying there is no money to meet ASUU’s demands, hence, the need to transfer the money on the students and their parents. Those that will be coming in by April or May may have to pay between N200,000 and N250,000 in federal universities while those in state universities may pay between N300,000 and N500,000 per session”, the source added.

Reacting to the development, National Secretary, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Usman Baba Kankia said, the students’ body was ready to legally engage the concerned authority to rescind the thought of abysmal increment of tuition fees in the face of the hash economy the parents and self-sponsored students are going through.

According to him, “we have given them two weeks ultimatum to stop the process and that ultimatum expired on Tuesday, January 24.

“We have written to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene as a father because we understand that there is a directive through the vice-chancellors to increase the tuition fees of all federal universities.

“We wanted to embark on a massive protest but we felt that may not give concrete achievement. We have also set up committees across the zones to engage with the management of these universities both those that have increased the fees and those in the process of increasing them.

An increment of N10,000 or N20,000 is fair. But you cannot just increase it by about 200 percent for whatever reason and you except Nigerians to clap for you”, he said.