400-Level Student Of Tai Solarin University Suspended For Leading Peaceful Protest
In a speech last Saturday he lamented the decision of the school management merely because he led a peaceful protest where no property of the school was damaged and no school activity was interrupted.
BY SAHARA REPORTERS, NEW YORK JAN 31, 2017
Ewetola Abdulramon, a 400-level student of the Department of Agricultural Economics of the Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), and National President of the Nigeria University of Education Students Association (NUESA), has been suspended indefinitely from TASUED for his role in a protest held earlier this month.
In a speech last Saturday he lamented the decision of the school management merely because he led a peaceful protest where no property of the school was damaged and no school activity was interrupted.
He noted that NUESA, the headquarter of which is located in TASUED, has also been banned from operating within the institution because of the same protest that led to his suspension.
“The school management held an emergency meeting because of the protest held and as an outcome of the meeting, my executives and I are being threatened that we will not graduate from the school,” Abdulramon said.
Questioning the legality of his suspension, he affirmed that peaceful protest is a human right provided for in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Abdulramon further noted that he is currently under “tactical” suspension, stating that he is unable to access his personal student portal, which would automatically disqualify him for registering and partaking in the semester examinations and lead to an additional year for him in school.
The student leader revealed that he has been getting various calls from lecturers and other students’ leaders disclosing that the school authorities do not want him to graduate from the institution at the appropriate time, and lamented that the action of the school would also deprive him of the opportunity to graduate with a first class grade, for which he is currently in line.
“I keep hearing that I will not graduate from TASUED and my result is being held up. Both the Vice Chancellor, Professor Oluyemisi Oluremi Obilade, and Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Abayomi Arigbabu, keep threatening me day by day that I will never graduate. My Head of Department (HOD) has also been instructed to disturb me and ensure that I do not graduate.”
Of the anti-poor policies of the Ogun State government and the management of Tai Solarin University of Education, he said: “Students are being extorted and the rate of extortion is too high. Newly admitted students into undergraduate programmes pay [an] acceptance fee of 40,000, tuition fees of 76,500 and additional tax clearance of 10,000.”
SaharaReporters also gathered that post-graduate students pay as much as 150,000 plus an acceptance fee of 40,000 naira.
Comparing the current standard of education to how it was in the recent past when the current crop of political leaders received free education, Mr. Ewetola concluded that this generation of students has no choice than to manage to learn in an unconducive environment with poor facilities and learning tools and equipment.
He therefore called on the federal government to intervene in his matter and ensure he graduates from TASUED.
“I have been on scholarship which I won from Jiboku Abayomi Foundation due to incapability of my parents to fund my education, yet I am being threatened by school management that I will not graduate. Federal government and every human rights activist should please come to our rescue and ensure that my executive and I are reinstated and we enjoy every right and privilege a student of TASUED is entitled to.”
