"I didn't pay school fees while going to school" says Femi Falana

 

By  ACJ Editorial Team and Samiat Ajayi

 Nigerian Lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana when in attendance as the keynote speaker at the one-day Colloquium held by The Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation, CNJF, shared his education journey and made mentioned that he didn't pay any fees while going to school.

Femi Falana in his speech while addressing the theme of the day (People-led Demand for Good Governance: Role of Investigative), cited cases where he had to fight for the access to free education by the Nigerian students, sharing that many of the leaders same as himself enjoyed the benefits of free education during their schooling period, and exposing the bizarreness in clamouring for the increment in most of these institutions tuition fees.

In his words, he said; "Many of our leaders today enjoyed free education and access to numerous benefits during their time such as; free laundry service, provision of food, employment opportunities lined up even before convocation and many more all these made their struggle easy, but now many of them clamour for increment in the tuition fees of tertiary institutions even at a time when the economic recession of the country continues to rise and harsh economic policies are put in place by these same leaders".

  He further explained,  "You  are going to be surprised if I tell you as young people when we went to the university I did not pay school fees, apart from not paying fees, the government was paying us bursary and loans, loans that were never paid back, even before we completed our final year exams, and youth service, employers of labour came to interview us on campus for job placements which we had series of alternatives to choose from in contrast to what we have today".

 “However, it is quite shocking to see that most of the government officials who enjoyed those facilities have in turn decided to turn the system upside down if not why should it be reported by the law enforcement agency that a government official embezzled about sixty billion nairas which will be more than enough to put every child in school in that state, build first-class hospitals, provide access to clean water and fix the bad roads?”

According to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Nigeria has enough resources which when complemented with good governance can be achieved by putting ethnicity aside in the selection of our leaders and focusing on questions that could help liberate our country, from the shackles of oppression, then Nigeria can be greater than in the past and present.

The  CJNF Colloquium was graced by journalists from different media outlets including students inclined to journalism across different tertiary institutions had a Nigerian Lawyer and Human Right Activist, Femi Falana as the keynote speaker, Mrs Ibim Sementari, Mr VinMartin Obiora Professor Aliyu Jauro as panellists for the discussion.

Moreover, CNJF is a non-profit organisation that uses journalism as an avenue to advance transparency and accountability for good governance. In the past five years of implementing the grant, they have published up to 200 investigative reports which have x-rayed government policies and programmes and some of these led to remedial actions from the government for better service delivery to the people.