Being
the text of a press conference addressed by the Education Rights Campaign (ERC)
in collaboration with the Lagos State University Students Union on Wednesday 12
February 2014 at the International Press Centre, Ogba Lagos on the crisis at
the Lagos State University (LASU)
We welcome you all
gentlemen and ladies of the press to this August occasion. Today will go down
in the history of our ivory tower - the Lagos state university (LASU) - as a
day that we have decided to set the records straight and set a blue print for
the development of our great citadel of learning.
The gathering here today
has two purposes: (1) the introduction of #SaveLASU Campaign and (2) to shed
light on the recent crisis that has bedeviled our great university as well as
to discuss and bring to the fore the root cause of this crisis.
#SaveLASU:
Against the backdrop of
the recent protest witnessed at the Lagos State University and the injustice
done to 1,292 students of the university coupled with the obnoxious policies of
the state government and management of the university, underfunding of the
university, poor learning environment and other vices that have hampered the
university and the students from acquiring quality education, there arose the
feeling that something must be done to salvage the university.
It is this feeling that has
brought into life a new movement called #SaveLASU which is a movement
comprising LASU Students Union, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), the
National Union of Lagos State Students (NULASS), radical and progressive groups
in LASU as well as members of the public who want to save LASU from the death
pill of fee hike and commercialization. This movement has saddled itself with
the sole responsibility of campaigning for the repositioning of LASU for good
and restoring it back to the dream of its founding fathers.
It is sacrosanct and
germane to note that the organizers of the #SaveLASU campaign have at heart the
best interest of not just LASU students (Lasuites) but the youths out there who
have been deprived of good and quality education as a result of the obnoxious
and anti-poor education policies of the state.
It must be noted that
#SaveLASU is not a political group or a secret society, neither do we engage in
violent conducts, rather we believe in dialogue as we see it as the best means
to resolve conflicts but that does not take away the fact that we also employ
the use of intellectual and mass protest, so far it will help us achieve our
aims of making LASU a “Citadel per Excellence”.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE RECENT CRISIS
The 22nd and 23rd of January will go down in the history of LASU as days the university
witnessed the highest level of protest on its soil. Not that the students just
protested out of nothing, the 23rd was meant to mark the beginning of our much awaited 2nd semester examination.
The protest which started
at about 11am on the 22nd of January 2014, was meant to be a very peaceful
protest. The protest staged by students who have been deprived the opportunity
to register for exams after due payment has been made gathered at the senate
building to make pleas to the university management to open the exam portal so
they can register and sit for their exams. But unfortunately, the plight of
1,292 students of the university fell on deaf ears as the University management
considered them insignificant. This led to the protest of January 22nd, 2014.
It is pertinent to note
that the Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. John Obafunwa, who made his exit out of
the senate building after the governing council meeting that very day, saw the
protesting students and overlooked them as if they were “2nd class” students of the
university. Even at this, the students maintained their calm and kept on
begging the VC who made his way to his car, kicked a student and instructed his
driver to drive on and crush any student that dares to stop his car. This
insensitive and irresponsible action of the VC who had at a point called the
1,292 students insignificant, did not go down well with the students and they
took to the roads of LASU running after the VC’s convoy. The actions of the VC
that very day marked the beginning of the protest of January 23rd, 2014.
We will not bore you with
the actions and reactions of January 23rd, 2014 as all these have been conveyed to the media
already. But we will like to state here as against the lies and blackmails
being circulated by the management through her PRO, Dr, Sola Fosudo, students
of Lagos State University are not touts, they are not rogues, they are not
thugs, instead, they stood to fight against injustice to a fraction of the student
populace, keeping with the belief that “an injury to one, is an injury to all”.
It is worthy to note that had the VC being a bit more sensitive to students
plight, he would have buried his pride and given to the students what was
rightfully theirs, instead he and his team remained adamant.
We are not justifying the
violent act of January 23rd 2014. In reality we condemn violence in its
totality, but we are saying this could have been avoided if the VC had been
less dictatorial and more sensitive to students plight. Even a goat when pushed
to the wall, turns around to fight.
THE ROOT CAUSE
Since the state
government imposed in October 2011 the draconian increment in school fees from
N25, 000 to between N193,750 to N348,750 depending on course of study, the
fortunes of LASU as an educational institution began to nose-dive. The
increment which has been the bedrock of the collapse and crisis of LASU has not
only hampered the progress of the university, but it has also deterred
brilliant, qualified but poor youths of Nigeria from getting admission into the
university. We believe the fee hike is a death pill and unless quickly
reversed, LASU as an academic institution may die.
For instance at the first
matriculation ceremony after the fee was hiked which took place on 12th
March 2012, only 39.8% (1,951) of the over 4,903 students offered admission
turned out to take their oath. About 60% could not take up their admission
because they could not afford the fees. This was after the payment deadline was
extended four times! LASU used to have over 20, 000 full-time students, today
full-time students are only a little above 12, 000. Indeed at this rate
especially when the current 300 and 400 level students who are still paying the
old fees of N25, 000 graduate, LASU may have less than 6,000 full-time students!
Today there are several
departments at the Lagos State University that have less than 10 students at
100 level. French department for
instance has one student in 100 level. Islamic studies has six students in 100
level. Law which is often a faculty with sizeable number of students is dying out in LASU. There are just 15
students at 100 level and 25 students at 200 level of LASU’s Law Faculty! At
the Department of Fishery, 60 students obtained admission into 100 level last
session. A session after, only 14 out of this are left and out of this 14, only
four have registered for the current session. This gives a glimpse of the high
drop-out rate as many parents after paying the first fee in 100 level find it
hard to continue paying. Therefore for many current 100 and 200 level LASU
students, the possibility that they would be able to complete their studies is
almost zero. The implication of this on the long run is that such courses or
programs would be rationalized while academic and non-academic staff would be
retrenched leading to job losses. Already there are rumours that 141 lecturers
have already being placed on sack list, the school is only awaiting the right
moment to announce this.
The case of LASU is a
case of a persistent betrayal, lies and deceit from the Lagos state government.
For three years the LASU school fees hike
has been justified with lies. We shall provide answers to these lies forthwith.
First and foremost, the
state government often argues that it introduced the fee hike based on the
recommendation of a visitation panel. This is an hollow excuse because everyone
knows that he who pays the piper most often dictates the tune. However even if
we could accept the governments excuse it would still not suffice. Yes there
was a visitation panel set up on 9th December 2009. Yes there was a
report of the visitation panel which recommended fee hike “in view of the enormous financial commitment required to run a
University vis-à-vis other competing demands…”. But what the government has
refused to say is that the same visitation panel recommended “increase in the Budgetary allocation to the
University (i.e. LASU) using the UNESCO benchmark of a minimum of 25% of annual
budget of the State to be expended on Education”. Now we ask: why is it so
convenient for the government to implement the first recommendation of fee
hike? If indeed government was left with no choice than to obey the recommendation
of the visitation panel on fee hike, why and how was government able to take
the choice of rejecting another recommendation of the same panel which touched
on increase of budgetary allocation to LASU? This is what we call deceit of the
State government. But this is not all.
Let me remind us that
when the Lagos State government introduced the fee hike, the Governor promised
to mitigate the impact of the increase on indigent students by provision of
bursary and scholarship. However few weeks after, the government reviewed the
Lagos State University Undergraduate Scholarship scheme by attaching so much
stringent conditions such that less number of students were able to benefit
from it. The same government has over the last few years being defaulting on
payment of bursary awards to students of Lagos State origin. The combined
implication of all these is that students have absolutely nothing to cushion
the effect of the fee hike. This in a State where civil servants most of whom
have their children in LASU are collecting even less than the N18,000 minimum
wage. There are many stories of parents selling cars and other properties to
pay their children’s school fees in LASU. This is an injustice we cannot take
anymore.
Regrettably
this gradual decline, decay and collapse of LASU does not seem to bother the
State government. Many members of Governor Fashola’s administration today and
those in the State House of Assembly are alumni of the Institution. Therefore LASU
should be the pride of the State. It is the only State University. It is a
University established to ensure that all people of Lagos are able to access
quality tertiary education. It seems the grand plan of the Lagos state
government is to destroy the Lagos State University, make it unworkable and
non-functional and then sell it off.
Let me
serve a note of warning to the State Government. LASU belongs to everybody, not
just the State government. If really the grand plan is to destroy LASU in order
to sell it, Lasuites will not allow it. Lasuites have vowed to protest and
demonstrate until government does the right thing which is to reverse the fee
hike so that children of poor working class people of Lagos can have the
benefit of university education.
Therefore, we are
demanding the immediate reversal of the fee hike because we in #SaveLASU
believe this as the root cause of the protest. We also foresee a recurring
crisis of this nature if this downward review is not done. A state that
generates over N80billion monthly as IGR should not leave the funding of her
only university to the fees of the students, rather the State Government should
comply with the recommendation of UNESCO that 25% of the states’ Annual Budget
should go to education.
We condemn the resolutions of the Lagos State House
of Assembly on the lingering crisis in the Lagos State University. We reject
the resolutions of the Lagos State House of Assembly, which sought to put the
whole blame of the crisis on students whereas the cause is the outrageous fee
hike in the institution. Most especially, the statement credited to the Speaker
that the ringleaders of the January 23rd, 2014 protest should be fished out is an
endorsement of expulsion and suspension of LASU students.
We therefore hold that the resolutions of the
Assembly is a dress rehearsal for further attacks on the democratic rights of
students of the university and it does not touch on the real roots of the crisis, which is the
skyrocketing fees being paid at LASU.The resolutions also kept silent on the
reopening of the university.
We call on the mass of
the students of Lagos State University to reject the resolutions of the Lagos
State House of Assembly as it will lay basis for unwarranted victimization of
students, without any effort to resolve the lingering crisis in the university.
We call on students of LASU to demand the reversal of the fee hike, the
reopening of the university as well as the opening of registration portal
without limitation of time, in order for all students to register.
On our own part, we have decided in the #SaveLASU
movement to peacefully march to the Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday 18
February 2014 to submit a petition bearing the following demands:
v The
immediate reopening of LASU and opening of registration portal for students to write
examinations
v Reversal of the fee hike
v Adequate funding of the university
v Democratic management of the university
v No reparation be paid by any student
v No victimization in any form of any of our
students.
We therefore call on all
well-meaning Lagosians, Nigerians, Lasuites, alumni and the world at large, who
believes that “Education is a right and not a privilege”, to help form a
formidable force against these cabals who wish to price education out of the
reach of the poor.
Together in unison we say
#SaveLASU! Save the future!!!
Hassan Taiwo Soweto
National Coordinator
07033697259 
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