CONCERNED STUDENTS AGAINST TUITION FEE

So, a university student cries out about how her school fees just quadrupled. As usual, the comment section becomes a theater of different groups of government supporters, each finding a unique way to defend the administration's abdication of its duty. First on the scene were the elite and the older generation. They were quick to compare her new fees to what students pay in the UK or the US, completely ignoring that Nigerian public universities lack the basic facilities, electricity, or simple quality to justify such global benchmarks. Ironically, these same defenders enjoyed practically free, highly subsidized education in their youth. But God forbid the current generation benefits from the same system. Quality education is never cheap, they said, essentially locking the door they happily walked through. Next were the deflectors. They told her to stop complaining and just take student loans. They conveniently glossed over the fact that it is largely a sham—a predatory debt trap that demands a 10% direct deduction from your future salary. This is all without any provision for jobs, of course. Upon graduation, Damocles' sword doubles; one for unemployment and one for loans taken while in school. Good luck dodging both. Also, to protect the administration, the deflectors shifted all the blame to the universities, calling the administrators greedy for adding arbitrary levies. Then came the "Pragmatists." They claimed this massive hike was a bitter, necessary pill to finally end all ASUU strikes and allow the schools to fund themselves. If the students pay more, the calendar will run smoothly, they said. They willfully ignored the fact that the federal government allocated a miserable 7.3% to education in the 2025 budget, less than half of UNESCO's recommended minimum. Unsurprisingly, despite these extortionate new fees, universities are still facing the exact same paralyzing industrial actions anyway. What these defenders share is profound hypocrisy. You cannot justify a 7.3% education budget, compare local infrastructural decay to foreign standards, or push a predatory loan scheme in a country where the minimum wage is ₦70,000 and 75% of the population is wallowing in multidimensional poverty. MULTIDIMENSIONAL. Jesus Christ. If you complain that you can no longer afford a car, their immediate response is, “Find a job.” When you tell them you already have a job but inflation has swallowed your wages, they say “Find a better job,” or “Start a side hustle.” When you point out that the economy is bleeding jobs and there are no opportunities left, they shift the goalposts yet again: “Learn a tech skill, trade crypto, sell something online.” The solution they offer is an endless, exhausting marathon of personal reinvention. You must pivot. You must hustle. You must bleed. But what you must never, ever do is hold the government responsible for creating an environment where fucking basic survival requires superhuman effort. We're a failed state, we're a defeated people, and somehow, we always find a way to adjust. It is so disgusting. Do anything to survive. Scrape, beg, steal but don't get caught, juggle multiple jobs, run mad, commit suicide, die trying. But what you must never do is hold the elected officials responsible for your woes. It's not as if they put you in the quagmire you're in. All they do is embezzle funds, spend billions on foreign trips and the occasional solar installation, while you sit in complete darkness drenched in your sweat, scrolling Twitter and looking for the best way to show your allegiance. There will be no revolution. We're finished.

Last hours in the office for the Auspicious Team We're handing over today. What do you have to say about us?