The Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, Bauchi State Chapter, Rev. Abraham Damina, has said that the increase of fees by schools especially tertiary institutions in the country was pathetic.
He stated this in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the “First Bauchi South Stakeholders Interactive Session” organised by the Senator representing Bauchi South Senatorial District, Buba Umar.
He noted that the situation has left Nigerian masses to bear the brunt of trying to send their children to school despite the hardship and economic situation in the country.
“Honestly, the situation on the ground is really very pathetic, it is the common man that is bearing the brunt. When the school fees are high, how can you imagine a man in the village sending his child to school especially the higher institution? Where will he get this type of huge money to pay for his children’s fees?
“I think the government should do something urgently to cushion the effect which is mainly on the common man. The common man is really suffering untold hardship at the moment in Nigeria,” he said.
Also speaking, the National Publicity Secretary of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Abdullahi Yelwa, said that Bauchi’s rating as being among states with the highest number of out-of-school children is a bad signal.
He said, “Every person in Nigeria is aware of the hyper-inflation and with the fact that fuel subsidy was removed have caused an increase in the price of everything so much that the pay of civil servants no longer take them home.
“Unfortunately, their income hasn’t changed and the burden has increased and they cannot pay their children’s school fees and as a result, a good number of them are dropping out of school at the tertiary level.
“I want to call on our senator to see how he can, with other stakeholders, ameliorate this situation by injecting resources to assist those who deserve to be in school because it is the sure way to ensuring security and managing security.”
A former lawmaker in the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Aminu Tukur, charged the Bauchi South Senator to use his position to see that the problem of arbitrary increase of fees by tertiary institutions is addressed.
“The government should look at this critically otherwise, these children of the masses that they ignore today will one day become trouble for the society. If the common man cannot go to school because of high fees, they should know that they too may not have sleep tomorrow.
“I call on the government to ensure that there is uniformity in fees so that it will be the same in every tertiary institution you go to.
“For example, if it is N100 that is charged at the Federal University of Health Sciences, Azare in Bauchi, it should be the same in Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State and also the same at the University of Calabar. It is very necessary for that uniformity to be done,” he advised.
Similarly, the North-East Women Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, Maryam Bagel, called on the Federal Government to urgently take back the dollar to where it was in the past stressing that the official rate of the dollar should be reversed.
Bagel, a former Commissioner in Bauchi State said, “It is really uncalled for for the Naira to be treated the way it is being treated. The President was ill-advised and this has really affected us because we are consumers, Nigeria is more of a consumer country than a production country. Therefore, we become the victims. If it is reversed, it will bring down the prices of things in the market.
“The government also needs to look into the case of people hoarding the dollar. They say that the number of dollar in circulation in Nigeria is even more than the one in circulation in America because they mostly use electronic money.
“But the situation is different with us, the big people will be buying the dollar and stashing them in their water tanks and undergrounds, keeping them as assets.
“The government should check this and possibly set up a commission to look into this and checkmate it so that there will be an end to this dilemma that we have found ourselves in.”
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
