By Mayowa Aijboye

As the economy plunges into more crises, students across various campuses have grappled with multiple challenges. Once you examine their domestic practices, you will generally find that the education sector is in limbo: virtually all public higher institutions have raised tuition fees by over 300 percent since the deceptive loan scheme was introduced under the Tinubu regime. Additionally, students have voiced their concerns about unreliable power supplies, and as insecurity escalates, their safety remains uncertain.

As the 2027 election approaches, it is important to state that the budgetary allocation for education, like past governments, has stagnated. In 2026 alone, only 6.1% was allocated to cover interventions in the education sector. More appalling, nothing has fundamentally improved.  Universities are in the worst of possible state: classrooms are still overcrowded, lecturers are barely paid, and hostels are no longer affordable or comfortable to stay in. In Unilag, a supposed hostel built to solve accommodation crises on campus, with taxpayers’ money, is now a site only for the rich.  Like, how do we begin to logically configure that a federal university hostel is currently quoted between ₦700k and ₦1m naira for a room that is shared with other 3 in some other cases with 6 or even 8? 

In the University of Ilesa, the same repeated attack on student rights is glaring. In Jos, following the attack, many students continue to live in danger and fear. Based on the latest reports, over 1500 schools have shut down as a result of insecurity crises, more than a million are out of school, and of the 1.7 million that graduate yearly, Nigeria currently houses 80 million unemployed youths. Nigeria is a country where 133 million people are multidimensionally poor. Not to mention the cost of living and the price of commodities. Therefore, any student living in this economy is compelled to learn how to squeeze blood from stone to survive. Many students blend academics and the fight for survival. This is all a consequence of the right ward shift of the ruling class to a full embrace of capitalism, with all of the essential and basic necessities of life commoditized and priced out of the reach of the majority of the working masses and their families, so as to feed the greed for profit by the few capitalist elites and members of the billionaire club. Capitalist system is designed to make life unbearable for the working people.

It is important to emphasise that there is nothing to point to in education sector that calls for any celebration under the Tinubu regime. The fact there were no strike actions by ASUU doesn’t at all translate to a revival of public education. The academic union has put forward several demands that have either gone unheard or resulted in vague compromises on the basis of promises that government has refused to respect or fulfill till date.

It is within this background that the Campaign for Student and Youth Rights (CSYR) reiterates that Education is a Right. As enshrined in the 1999 constitution, the children of the working people have a right to a free, qualitative education at all levels.  Students on campuses must begin to organise and collectively reject the deceptive loan scheme and demand a reversal of all fee hikes on campus. It is not the duty of students to build a university. The management has no right to harass students or prevent them from sitting for exams based on their failure to pay the outrageous fees, which have again proven not to improve the situation on campus.  Also, students should understand that protest is a right and must organise to demand a right to unionism and activism on campuses. Most importantly, they must draw from inspiration from the mass STRUGGLES of previous era, consolidate the historical gains and lessons of the past and give solidarity to the working people, as all the problems of capitalism are interconnected.

We therefore demand:

• Free, quality education for all; education is a right!
• Reversal of all fee hikes on campuses
• No to deceptive loan schemes
• Revitalisation of Public Education, with a recommended budgetary allocation of 21-26%!
• Payment of all unpaid Salary