ASUU strike: We’ll shut down Nigeria – Activists
Lagos,
Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, stood still for many hours
yesterday, as over 1,000 university students, lecturers, human rights
activists and other stakeholders took to the streets. They staged a
peaceful rally to show their displeasure over what they termed ‘poor funding of education
in the country.’As early as 6:00a.m,
participants began to converge on
the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), secretariat annex in Yaba, Lagos, for
the protest. The rally eventually took off at 8:00a.m.The nationwide
indefinite strike embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU) to protest poor funding of education by the government has been on since July 1.
The protest, organised by the Joint Action Front (JAF), a coalition
of students and civil right groups, was led by Comrade Abiodun Aremu.
Leaders of the group who participated in the rally included Lagos
radical lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Aturu and representative of the Academic
Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Comrade Chibuzor Asomugha.
Also in attendance were the leaders of the National Association of
Nigerian Students (NANS), Concerned Students Against Education
Commercialization, Education Rights Campaign and others.
The organisers said similar rallies would be held at various zones
across the country. Protests would also be staged in Kano, Ibadan,
Owerri, Calabar, Abuja and other places.
The protesters, carrying scores
of placards with various inscriptions, sang numerous abusive songs to
press home their agitations. They did not only sing, they danced with a
view to sensitising the public about their cause.
The students barricaded Ikorodu Road at Onipanu area as they bemoaned
their fate. The students also played football on the highway.
The protesters assaulted the Federal Government with the inscriptions
on their placards. The inscriptions addressed various issues including
alleged government’s insensitivity to the plight of teachers at all levels of education, high school fees and poor infrastructure in public schools.
As this was going on, economic activities on Ikorodu Road were
brought to a standstill. The situation led to heavy traffic on the road.
Motorists and commuters spent many hours on the road after they were
held up in the logjam.
Addressing the protesters at Palmgrove, Comrade Abiodun Aremu
described the march as a tip of an iceberg, adding that series of
protests have been lined up to force the three tiers of government in
the country to jettison their purported negative attitude to the growth
and development of education and embrace positive attitude.
His words: “This is just the beginning of a number of protests that
we have lined up in the coming days. We are going to be peaceful in all
the protests. As you can see today (yesterday), there are no street
urchins or ‘area boys.’ The aim is to draw government attention to the
numerous problems bedevilling education in the country. We need the
support of everybody. If we don’t do this, nobody is going to do it for
us.”
Aremu also appealed to necessary stakeholders such as parents,
traders, artisans and others to join JAF in the subsequent protests that
would be staged in different parts of the country. If this is done, he
believed, the government would be compelled to take pragmatic steps to
evolve a policy that would transform educational sector in Nigeria.
Representative of ASUP, Comrade Asomugha, in his speech, said:
“Education is not only for the rich. Nigerians should wake up and
reclaim what belongs to them. We, members of ASUP, have resolved to join
the protest to salvage the education sector. We want to identify with
the spirit of peaceful protest, which is a veritable tool to fight a
just cause.”
He lamented that this feat would remain a mirage if the NLC and other
relevant stakeholders would not take the bull by the horn and fight for
the rights of the downtrodden.
The aim of the protest, according to JAF, is to draw the attention of government and members of the public to the bleak future
awaiting Nigerian children if decisive steps are not taken to redress
the problems. JAF further lamented that children of top politicians and
government officials are being trained in private schools in Nigeria and
abroad with funds allegedly looted from public coffers.
JAF secretary, Comrade Aremu, stated that the protest was organised
to force government to pay attention to the universities lecturers’
demands, not to molest anybody. He said the lingering ASUU/FG feud over
the non-implementation of the 2009 agreement did not prompt protest but
the need to emphasise adequate funding
of the educational sector. He added: “We have mobilised students
concerning today’s protest; we also plan to make it nationwide.
“Nigerians
must know that the politicians (at the presidency, state
governments, national and state assemblies), top civil servants,
traditional rulers and their cronies of contractors and patrons were
beneficiaries of public education. Also, some of them set up private
schools and universities in Nigeria and abroad with stolen funds from
the public coffers. That is why none of their children are in any public
school in Nigeria.
“The case of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State is the
most striking example. He enjoyed free tuition at the University of
Benin, without which he wouldn’t have been educated. Yet, the same
Governor Fashola turned Lagos State University (LASU) into a high cost
fee paying university from N25,000 to N320,000, thereby throwing
children of the poor who voted for him and who his government refused to
pay the N18,000 minimum wage, out of school.”
The National Association of Nigerian Students, also yesterday
appealed to the federal government, university lecturers and polytechnic
teachers to resolve their face-off for the sake of students. President
of NANS, Mr Yinka Gbadebo, told students had continued to be victims of
conflicts between lecturers and governments.
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