Don’t send students away because of fees, NANS warns Federal University, Wukari

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has issued a strong warning to the management of Federal University, Wukari, Taraba State, against preventing students from attending classes or registering for academic activities due to their inability to pay tuition fees. NANS described such actions as insensitive to the students' plight and contrary to the principles of accessible and inclusive education.

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Humanity must always precede our personal dispositions in the management of institutions. This decision is cruelty in its purest form.

Akinteye Babatunde Afeez, the National President of NANS, stated that the fact that students are awaiting tuition fee payments from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) should prompt the university to exercise caution. NANS condemned the university's directive that students unable to pay fees must defer their semester or academic session, warning that failure to comply would result in forfeiture of the session. Students who defer without approval or are absent without approved deferment risk being barred from registering for the next academic session.

NANS criticized the university's stance as "cruelty in its purest form," especially at a time when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's NELFUND initiative aims to make higher education accessible. The association finds it disheartening that the Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Wukari, is reportedly frustrating students and keeping them out of school due to financial challenges that NELFUND was designed to address. NANS views this policy as a direct attack on Nigerian students and the education sector.

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At a time when the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has introduced the NELFUND initiative to make education accessible to ordinary Nigerians and every young Nigerian who aspires to pursue higher education, it is disheartening that the Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Wukari is the very one frustrating students and keeping them out of school because of financial challenges that the initiative was designed to address.

The association highlighted that many students have already applied for NELFUND, and the university is expected to receive tuition fees once the funds are disbursed. Denying students the opportunity to participate in examinations, despite the assurance of future disbursement, is considered inhumane. NANS vowed that such "anti-student policies" would not be tolerated within the university.

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It is therefore inhumane for the Vice-Chancellor and the entire management of the institution to deny students the opportunity to write their examinations despite the assurance that NELFUND will certainly disburse the funds in due course.