By Wole Olubanji
(Engels)
On 19th
September, 2013, the Joint Action Front (JAF), in conjunction with the branches of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Ogun state organized a mass
procession in Abeokuta in continuation of the ‘Save Public Education Struggle’.
About 10 members of the
ERC, who are also DSM comrades, from branches in Lagos, Oyo and Ogun States
intervened at this struggle with our leaflets, paper (Socialist Democracy) and ERC banner.
The procession started
from NNPC Mega Station at Abeokuta with about 200 protesters. This included
ASUU members, donning apron with inscription “strike monitoring committee”, a good
number of students and JAF members especially from Lagos. For ASUU, its
participation at the Abeokuta demo was better than the turnout at the August 13
JAF protest in Lagos. Yet this does not mean that the mobilization method of
ASUU has improved over the last one. This is because with participation of
various branches of ASUU (from Ogun, Lagos, Oyo) at the Abeokuta demo, a larger
number of rank and file lecturers should have participated.
While appreciate
the roles the ASUU has been playing in the JAF organized save public education
struggle, the ERC has been calling on the ASUU to name a day of national
protest and massively mobilize members, parents, students and working people as
the next step in their struggle to save public universities from collapse.
The procession started
with a short speech by Biodun Aremu (Secretary of JAF), which captured the focus
of the protest – sensitisation of the masses on the crisis in public education.
The procession had barely started when a battalion of Policemen led by the Ogun state Commissioner
of police showed up. Remarkably, these armed policemen easily outnumbered the
protesters. Even with this, the protesters were not intimidated as they
continued to chant anti-repression slogans and songs. While reacting to this
situation, Biodun Aremu enjoined the protesters to maintain the protest line
and not take issues up with the policemen. In his words, “we are not here to
fight the policemen…, the police too cannot afford hundreds of thousands of
naira to send their children to school”.
While the heavy
presence of policemen also attracted public interest to the movement, the
protesters were distributing leaflets within the traffic logjam created by the
procession. It was during this period that we sold most of the 51 copies sold
altogether at the rally.
The procession stopped
at Kuto and other markets to address traders, buyers and passers-by on the
failure of the government to adequately fund education, decay in public
education and the need for mass actions. The speakers also explained why government
must be blamed for the recent strikes of workers at tertiary institutions,
especially the current ASUU strike, with attendant long closure of schools. Apparently,
the reaction of the people was very receptive. One of the market women, in an
obvious indignation, condemned the government who has kept her child at home
for the past 3 months when she should have graduated last month.
It was part of the
protest plan to show a power-point documentary of Needs Assessment report which
reveals the alarming extent of decadence and deterioration of the public
universities. But the proposed venue was unsuitable because of its high
exposure to sunlight. The procession eventually ended at IweIroyin, NUJ chapel
in Abeokuta.
In all, our
intervention was successful, so also was the procession itself. Apart from
public sensitization the procession was also widely covered by the media.
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