Reps condemn high varsity, poly admission fees

… To probe Jos DisCo for 10-year power outage in Bauchi

HOUSE of Representatives yesterday, in its plenary session flayed the circle of exorbitant admission acceptance fees being charged on prospective students by Nigerian universities and polytechnic.

  Describing it as an impediment to smooth processing of entry into universities, the federal legislators shot down the policy while expressing worry that unless the nation’s tertiary institutions desist from the charges, indigent people may be denied of higher education opportunity.

  Therefore, the lower chamber unanimously passed a resolution urging the executive to increase funding of public tertiary institutions as a buffer to excessive drive for Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) at the expense of popular participation in public education in Nigeria.

  The resolution was sequel to a motion titled ‘need to investigate the acceptance fees charged by tertiary institutions in Nigeria’ which was sponsored by Julius Ihonvbere from Edo State.

  The lawmakers therefore mandated their committee on tertiary institution and services to investigate the high acceptance fees charged by the institutions within four weeks.

  Moving the motion earlier, Ihonvbere said high acceptance fees charged by some public universities on new students across the country has become a matter of great concern to many families

  “Amid the rising frustrations over the exorbitant fees, indigent families of new students that are forced to pay the acceptance fees are bemoaning the unusual astronomical increases against the backdrop of the fact that federal universities are supposedly tuition-free. The acceptance fees are discriminatory, as they vary from one university to the other which clearly shows that they have become mere internal revenue-generating mechanisms thus constituting an impediment to the smooth process of entry into universities,” he said.

  Similarly, House of Representatives yesterday, resolved to investigate Jos Electricity Distribution Company over its failure to supply electricity to some communities in Bauchi State in the last 10 years.

  The legislators passed the resolution while adopting a motion by Mansur Soro in flaying the socio-economic impact of the power failure on the people in the affected communities.