Senate orders suspension of hiked fees for UNIMAID students

Senate has directed the management of the University of Maiduguri, UNIMAID to stay action on the recent increment of tuition fees for students attending the institution.

The upper legislative chamber also mandated its Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFUND to investigate the matter in a bid to finding lasting solution to the issue.

These resolutions were sequel to a motion to that effect sponsored post under Orders 42 and 52 of the Senate Rule by Senator Abubakar Kyari (APC Borno North) during plenary.

Presenting the motion, Senate Kyari bemoaned the recent decision by the university management to increase the registration and other fees of the school from N25,000 to N129,000, an increase of over 400 percent.

“Half of the men in North-East Nigeria have received no education at all, and this figure rises to over sixty-one percent for women. It is imperative that schools in the North-East should remain of strategic national interest with overwhelming National Security importance,” Kyari said.

He said education remains a repellent and potent tool to defeat Boko Haram and also revamp the North East from under development and poverty.

According to the lawmaker, sixty-two percent of Nigerian children who are not in school live in Northern Nigeria.

“Borno State has the highest number of people that don’t have access to education due to the Boko Haram crisis in particular,” he added.

The lawmaker, therefore, called on all stakeholders to rise to the occasion to ensure that the fee increment is reversed due to the greater need to propagate empowerment through education at tertiary levels.

Accordingly, the upper legislative chamber, in its resolutions, mandated its Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFUND, to also engage the Ministry of Education and stakeholders such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU with a view to reaching consensus on a harmonised fee for all universities across the country.

President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks commended sponsor of the motion and gave the committee two weeks to carry out the investigation and report back to the Red Chamber.