By Anita John 
A civil society body, The Osun Masterminds (TOM), has described as outrageous the situation where the state government is charging as much as ₦1.3 million as tuition fees in state-owned universities, particularly the University of Ilesa (UNILESA).
The Executive Director of TOM, Prof. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, said in Osogbo that the outrageous tuition fees, if not reviewed, may push education beyond the reach of the common man. He called on the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, to quickly review the fees at UNILESA and the Osun State University (UNIOSUN). New tuition at UNIOSUN for 2025/2026 shows that fresh students will pay over N1 million.
“How will struggling families who see education as route to escape poverty have access to higher education when a state like Osun charge tuition as high as ₦1.3 million from students?” Oyedokun-Alli queried.
“We are using this opportunity to call on the Osun State Government to regulate the fees of these public institutions so that education is not moved out of the common man’s reach,” he said.
In early October 2025, some undergraduate students of UNIOSUN, who are required to pay as high as ₦940,000, took to social media platform X to plead with the state government to make education affordable for the less privileged.
Omolewa, who said her parents could not afford the new tuition fee, said:
Please help ,if the fee remains 940 thousand ,that means I’m not going to school this .. This thing is not about God will provide ,to be sincere my family can’t get 940k ,hostel fee not included oh now I feel bad for choosing the school.
Another user, Abideen, said:
Where is this country going to end with the way things are going all because of selfishness and greediness, I know one fact very soon the poor won’t be able to cope again and it would result to unsettling rage which will collapse the whole country by then it will be too late.
Another user, who looked at the exorbitant increase from a political perspective, stated that the increment may be due to the failure of the federal government to release local government allocations to the state government, “As tinubu no gre release local government funds he wants to use una head to get it back”.
Meanwhile, the state government has remained silent since the increment, leaving students and parents in limbo.
Recall that the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) raised a similar concern a few weeks ago, describing the latest tuition increases by some state governments as a move that could overburden the Fund’s capacity.
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Opeyemi Quadri