Launches new campaign to fight fees and education
underfunding
At this critical
point in time when government at all levels is hell-bent at intensifying
attacks on public education and thereby making education an exclusive preserve
of the rich, the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) Obafemi Awolowo University
(OAU) branch organized a public symposium with a view to sensitizing students
as well as the general public on the need for an organised fight back.
The situation on
the University campus is hardly exciting. After 2 years of proscription of the
Students union, the generality of students are reeling from a welfare condition
that has sharply gone from bad to worse over the last one year. Basic supply of
water and light to hostels and academic areas are no longer guaranteed. Lacking
a platform to fight back, most students are largely apathetic.
In spite of
this, over 70 students gathered in the Awolowo hall cafeteria – the venue of
the symposium – to listen to the speakers and participate in the discussion. In
attendance too were five members of the DSM from Oyo State
.
Leading the
discussion, Kola Ibrahim (Secretary of the DSM in Osun State) spoke on the
on-going privatization of electricity. This is an attempt to hand over the fate
of millions of Nigerians and indeed the Nigerian economy to the profit-oriented
caprices of a handful of big businesses and imperialism. Asides that is the
fact that the policy will deny a vast majority of Nigerians the access to
electricity as distribution to communities will be profit driven and at the
discretion of the corporation.
The only way
Nigerian citizens can be assured of regular and affordable power supply is by
nationalizing the power sector and placing it under the democratic control and
management of the workers, professionals and communities.
Given the attack
on independent unionism in the university, it was natural that the issue that
gripped students’ attention the most was the plan of the management to restore
the union which is looking more and more like a scheme to bring in a pliant Students’
Union through the back door. What with the plans of the Management to rewrite
the union constitution and make academic qualifications the requirement for
contest in Students’ Union elections.
As Dr. Kehinde
Ajilake (financial secretary of the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU), OAU chapter) pointed out, the only reason the University authorities
are talking of restoring the union is because of the need to set up a budget
monitoring committee (one of the aspects of FGN/ASUU 2009 agreement) which must
have a representative of the Students’ Union as well as staff unions. According
to her, were it not for this the University authorities would not be interested
in restoring the union because of its fears of the potency of an organized
studentry.
KKk |
| Kola Ibrahim, Secretary DSM Osun State |
Abbey Trotsky (DSM
Coordinator, Oyo State Chapter) spoke on the mass poverty and misery vast
majority of Nigerians are being subjected to despite the huge wealth and
resources at the disposal of government at all levels. A staggering sum of 3 billion
dollars is realized from sales of crude oil per day. This only reveals a
fraction of the unprecedented oil wealth receipt of the country which has yet
not translated into transformation of the lives of vast majority of its
citizens. A recent survey of the National Bureau of Statistics has it that over
70% of Nigerians are living below poverty line ($2 per day).
He called for a
mass political alternative of the working class and poor to wrest power from
the current thieving capitalist ruling elites. He therefore called on the mass
of students, workers, youths and the poor to join the Socialist Party of
Nigeria (SPN) – formed by the DSM - as a means towards building a mass political
alternative that can put an end to the gross inequality enthroned by the
exploitative capitalist system.
Soweto, the
National Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), introduced the new
campaign against fee hike and education under funding. He called for mass
action against the Oronsaye committee report whose recommendation would mean an
introduction of tuition fee ranging from N450, 000-N525, 000. This would have
serious negative implications for Nigerian students as well as their poor
working class parents.
It would lead to
mass drop out and layoff of staff as several departments and faculties would
have to be scrapped due to the low turnout of students/applicants. This is the
disaster looming at the Lagos State University today where fees have been hiked
to between N100, 000 to N348, 750! There
is urgent need for an organized national resistance against this attack on
public education.
To stop these
attacks, the ERC is calling for days of actions including coordinated lecture
boycotts and mass protests to demand adequate funding of education and reversal
of all hiked fees. This is one of the central points of the new campaign.
Leaflets and posters have been produced to be circulated around campuses urging
activists, Students’ Unions and the National Association of Nigerian Students
(NANS) to begin mobilization for such nationally coordinated mass actions. The
campaign is also urging for solidarity from staff unions and education workers.
In the course of
the debate, 18 students chose to join the DSM. Five, four of whom were female,
attended the branch meeting the following day. We also sold 5 copies of the
Socialist Democracy (SD). These modest gains again show the potential for
building a revolutionary organization on campuses despite the ebb in students’
struggle.
In OAU where
radical ideas have been under authorities’ sponsored attacks over the last
three years, this modest success is a big encouragement and points to the
possibility of our ideas acquiring a mass force. We intend to double our
efforts at consolidating on the contacts, making new ones and building the
branch ideologically and politically especially through the on-going campaign
for restoration of an independent union and against education under funding.
Odunayo
Eniayekan
Secretary, DSM OAU Branch
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