HALT RISING CRIME ON UI CAMPUS

ERC Condemns fee disparity in College of Medicine and Continuous silence of the SU-leadership on calls for intervention and anti-fee hike struggle

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC), University of Ibadan Chapter, strongly condemns the growing wave of criminal activities among students within the University of Ibadan campus. In recent weeks, reports of missing phones and laptops, and break-ins into hostel rooms and reading rooms as well as harassment have been rampant. We call on the university management to improve security measures on the campus and bring to book the criminal elements. We call for the set up of democratic security committees that include the students’ representatives.

However, we believe that these increasing cases of  crimes are not unconnected with the harsh economic reality arising from the anti-peoples policies of the Tinubu government, something compounded by hardship imposed on students by an insensitive Prof-Adebowale-led university administration as well as the abject failure of the Covenant-led Students’ Union (SU) to rise to its historic duty of adequate defense and protection of students’ collective interest.

In other words, while we do not in any way support criminality, the stark reality is that under the current economic hardship and declined campus welfare, the tendency is high that many students are already pushed to the brink of survival. Some skip meals or lectures, while others are forced into exploitative forms of survival! There is no doubt that the recently imposed outrageous school fees, rising cost of food, housing, transportation, and basic study materials side by side erratic power supply and poor internet access, have created a suffocating environment for academic pursuit. It is within this context that we situate the recent surge in campus crime.

It is also important to state that the fee crisis at the University of Ibadan has reached a particularly troubling level in the College of Medicine, where 300-level students admitted through Direct Entry in the previous academic session are being forced to pay significantly higher fees than their classmates at the same level. The ERC strongly condemns this discriminatory and exploitative fee regime. It is unacceptable that students studying within the same institution, sharing the same facilities, and accessing the same resources are subjected to different fees regimes. Such disparity is unjust, has the potential to breed division and inequality among students.

We therefore call on the Students’ Union leadership to immediately intervene and demand a swift regularization of the fees. No student should be penalized for the mode of their admission. Access to education must be equitable, and all policies that undermine this principle must be resisted. The ERC strongly condemns the continued silence and inaction of the Students’ Union leadership. Despite growing concerns and repeated calls by students and activist groups for the Union to intervene, particularly on pressing issues such as fee hike, fee disparity, rising insecurity on campus, and the deepening hardship faced by students, the SU leadership has chosen to remain  silent. This silence has no doubt emboldened the university management, which is now moving ahead with harsh policies, including the imposition of a registration deadline that threatens to exclude financially struggling students from sitting for the forthcoming semester examinations.  Also disturbing is the victimization of student activists, a clear attempt to make scapegoats of them and instill fear among the wider student body.

Such betrayal of students’ interest by those elected to defend it is unacceptable. The ERC calls for immediate action from the SU leadership to defend the rights and welfare of all students and to resist all forms of administrative intimidation and oppression. At the same time, ERC calls on all progressive students, activists, and organizations to intensify the call for accountability and resistance. It is important to note that rising crime on campus should not be used as an excuse to further militarize the university or criminalize struggling students, but as a wake-up call to address the root causes of suffering, inequality, and mismanagement. The ERC will continue to stand by students in the collective struggle for a just, equitable, and accessible education system.

Our demands:

1. Improve Security Measures on Campus.
2. End the discriminatory fee regime at the College of Medicine
3. Immediate reversal of the current fee hike including improvement in welfare condition on campus.
4. A democratic and accountable Students’ Union without undue interference of the university administration
5. A student congress to discuss the state of welfare, fee hike, insecurity, and how to build a formidable resistance against attacks on the collective interest of students.

To join the ERC and help build it at the University of Ibadan, send a message to the following numbers: 08033914091 and 08027564324.

Email: [email protected]

Nnamdi Ochi

ERC UI Branch Secretary