Understanding OOU crisis

Vincent Adeleke, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State: One does not need a star-gazer to know that it is the elements within the political opposition that are responsible for the violent protests by some students of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, which have now resulted in the closure of the institution by the state government.

It is on record that the students were having their normal classes before the announcement of reduction of school fees by about 60 per cent penultimate Tuesday by the Ogun State Government.

Expectedly, all the students of tertiary institutions in Ogun State reportedly erupted into spontaneous jubilation. Within 24 hours later, news filtered to the public that students of the tertiary institutions in the State under the umbrella of the National Association of Nigerian Students were organising a “Thank You” rally at the Governor’s Office penultimate Thursday.

Sensing that the governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has scored a major political point, having not only abolished his predecessor’s template of yearly increase in school fees of tertiary students but now reducing school fees payable by 60 per cent, the opposition moved fast.

They mobilised a handful of students of the OOU, led by one former ex-officio of the school’s Students’ Union Government (who is no longer a student of the school), to counter the solidarity rally of the overwhelming majority of the students in support of the current administration by demanding further reduction of the school fees and their retroactive implementation.

The government has the paramount responsibility of maintaining law and order. In particular, it needs to protect the majority of the OOU students, who, like their counterparts in other higher institutions of learning in the state, saw the 60 per cent reduction as a huge and unprecedented gesture on the part of Amosun, for which they are very grateful and knew the politics behind the current agitation by a few of their colleagues.

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