A true life story…
Hearing of the supposedly increase of school fees by ₦10 thousand even after going up a level, we were dazed. FUNAAB was pulling off one of its dirty tricks again.
Just the previous year, we went up a year and the fees we paid remained unchanged and we survived.
Well… The student union informed us of how they fought but we never saw any live action. To us, their fight was like a fairy tale told to a child.
Then came the banger. College of engineering also increased the price of the special levy we had always been paying; a whooping sum of ₦20 thousand (sounds like I exaggerated). It was doubled; we were to pay ₦30 thousand above what we had paid last session. Was money that easy to come by? Fun fact, no one was informed. We just logged into our portal and saw the amount confidently inscribed. No reason was stated before and the reason stated after had no definite proof and was of no definite evidence.
What reason? What could justify the means? The fact that Veterinary medicine increased their levy? The story was shady. On some sides, we were told not to pay yet even while the deadline came upon us. On other sides, it was said nothing could be done to change our fate. We were tossed to and fro. In a state of absolute confusion. Veterinary medicine added a new practical to syllabus, but we… We had nothing new. Nothing worth the ₦20 thousand that was added. We were not satisfied.
The semester began with some people trying to become serious again while some were trying to make more money. Everyone going about their respective businesses.
Naturally, Thursdays was meant to be free for us. This Thursday was different, we had to be in school to prepare for the presentation we had the next day. The exam for the course, as we had been earlier informed, was not worth 70 marks. Some went and some were confident they’ll score all in the exam therefore making 50+ in the final result for the course. Contrary to what we went to school to do, we were told to sit and wait for a special girl to make up her speech (was our HOC lazying around? She wasn’t our HOC so…). The possible reasons kept flooding our brains. She was one of the elite students in the department, so maybe she was the one helping everyone to present. At last, she completed the creation of her speech. A wonderful creation was what we all hoped for.
Time for delivery was at hand. We were expectant. Up the podium she went to deliver her well created speech. Next instance and we were hearing costs. That word “cost”… On the cheap side of cost was ₦4100 where we were already thinking it was one of the most costly sides.
Summing it up, we should budget ₦50 thousand, she muttered. Uninterested people instantly became interested. What do you mean ₦50k?
