So we recently came across a post on the internet discussing the differences in amount charged as tuition from non-indigent students by some state Governments who feel the students from their state should pay lesser to attain literacy in their state-owned universities. Although there are no clear cut reasons behind this, and no justification too but an attempt will be made in this article to elucidate why non-indigenes of a state university pay more school fees than indiginous students. Lest not forget that this trend exist in almost all state-owned schools in Nigeria (Colleges, Polytechnics inclusive), other than Federal Government and Private Institutions.
Let’s Educate Our Children First: The discriminating in school fees of state owned universities started with a few schools located in places considered to be educationally less developed before encroaching to other elite states. Government of these states like Ebonyi, Ekiti, Nasarawa, etc wanted to make education affordable to their indigenes in other to raise the literacy level to complete other states. To achieve this, they use higher school fees to scare off candidates (prospective students) from other states in other to have more admission vacancies to accommodate their children. This is true, but not in the interest of one Nigeria!
Politics of Indigenous Scholarships: Yes we mean Politics! We know of many states in Nigeria that claim to be giving scholarships to students from their states and in return charge higher fees from students from other states to make up for their losses. Although this may be seen as deception in a mild sense but why do that? We are Nigerians and we share one entity, thus we expect every state Government to threat the students that domicile with them alike. Whiles’t we see nothing wrong in offering some form of financial support (in form of bursary or scholarships) to indigenous students, Governments should do well to promise the electorate things they can do without shifting the stress to non-indigenous students. Take Imo State University Scholarship as a case study. There are also rumours that the admission quota for some of these schools has been tailored to admit more of non-indigenous students (who pay the bills) and less of indigenes (who enjoy the said scholarships). Why not remove the scholarships if it doesn’t favor the lot of Nigerians?
Our Children Find It Hard To Gain Admission Into Federal Universities: Hey, let’s not be selfish about this. The admission system adopted by Federal Universities, if respected, follows what they refer to as catchment areas. Students have almost equal rights of securing admission into any school in the country, so why would a certain state Government assume they are being disadvantaged in the admission process? The truth is, build good secondary schools that can prepare your students to face the competition for admission into FG schools, and let the children pass through the test with others. This sends warning to EBSU, KUST, LAUTECH, IMSU, etc. Building a system of higher school fees for students NOT from your state is a way of creating national disunity. After all we said it’s One Nigeria!
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