UDUS TUITION-HIKE: If University Is Not Only Meant for Reading by Shereefdeen Sawe

There are many issues ripe enough for discussion. Only that it’s now a waste of time talking about the most popular news headlines in Nigeria —’ ten killed, five injured, seven kidnapped as bandits/herdsmen attack’ so and so place. I don’t want to talk about the current ‘change’ we are facing in this country. Yes, we have seen the changes. We have seen how the government has expunged corruption, how our defense has become defenceless, economic austerity among others in the list of Nigeria problems. 

Permit me to tell you about the unexpected worth-protesting development of the most peaceful university in Nigeria. I mean how the management of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, has failed to consider the woman who sells ‘ Akara’ by the roadside. She now has to wallow in debt to continue paying the school fees for her daughter. 

What about the man who works as a vulcanizer, and still manage to have his son schooling at the federal university. Worries have enveloped him right from the moment Danfodiyo varsity released her tuition fees for the 2021/2022 academic session. He had budgeted 34,300.00 as tuition fees for his son who will now be in his final year, studying Political Science, but now I have to pay 44,900.00

The sudden hike in UDUS tuition fees is begging for the word ‘ consideration’. It’s no longer ‘I don’t know oo’ that even a cup of Garri is now around #500. Aside from the tuition fees, there are a lot of payments hanging on the student’s neck. We are urging the Danfodiyo management to temper justice with mercy. We want our headlines to read ‘ Danfodiyo Varsity Reduces Tuition Fees’. 

Sorry. That’s not where I’m going. You see, in the university or any tertiary institution, there’s more to reading books/handouts just to pass examinations and graduate with good grades. Of course the class you graduate with matters, but we know the number of first-class graduates drowning in the pool of labour market in Nigeria. 

Wait, are we only meant to Boko in school? who scribes it that engaging in the extracurricular activity will snatch away first-class from you? Though it’s a matter of individual difference. But doubt is always my favourite position regarding the assertion. 

Extracurricular activities are those activities outside or beyond the normal academic curriculum. It could be sport, journalism, politics or any social clubbing/association. The importance of extracurricular activity in school cannot be overemphasized. It would help a student to unlock his/her hidden potentials. Is it campus journalism, or campus politics or any social activities in school, it would serve as hands-on experience when you step into the field of the labour market. Forget about you are a science or a medical student, you can do well in writing or politics.  

We all know anybody that tells you things are certain in Nigeria is the greatest liar. You may end up in another field entirely different from the Microbiology you studied in university.’ Even if na drama club, u fi join am, no be everybody who works in Nollywood study Drama for school ‘.

The university community is the highest learning citadel. Do not make the dangerous mistake of spending all your campus life on reading to earn good grades only. What you failed to do on campus you may end up not doing it forever. Extracurricular activity is not a waste of time and energy. Though know yourself if you can consolidate it with the normal academic activities.

Ahmad Shereefdeen, is a 200-level law student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.