UNN Students Protest N30,000 Development Levy

Students of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology, University of Nigeria, Enugu campus, have embarked on protests against the compulsory N30,000 development levy recently imposed on them by the faculty.

It was gathered that the students began the protest on Monday, and had scheduled it to be continuous until the university management intervenes.

One of the students, Chika Odo, who spoke with THE WHISTLER, claimed that the levy was part of the school fees they had earlier paid.

“We don’t know why they created this one when we had paid it earlier. The extra N30,000 was added by the Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology while we had already paid it in our school fees,” he claimed.

Chimerem Okafor, a student, said, “We want our vice chancellor to intervene. This fee is peculiar to our faculty. It’s not fair. We shall continue to protest until the management intervenes. It’s wrong to force us to be funding the projects of our faculty when the university has its budget. We should be treated with equity.”

The students, in a viral video, blocked the entrance of the university, chanting “we no go pay”, “we no go pay”. One of them was heard saying in pidgin, “I never see money to chop food, how I go see N30k to pay this development levy?”
Some described the levy as a “daylight extortion” in their placards. Another asked, “Is it the students’ duty to develop the university?”

They accused the Dean of the faculty, Prof Ijeoma Okoronkwo, of introducing the levy. It was alleged that the affected students were barred from writing their exams, which prompted the protest.

Our correspondent was asked to contact the dean of the faculty when he called the university’s hotline for clarifications.

The Dean of the faculty, Prof Ijeoma Okoronkwo, did not respond to questions when contacted.