OGUN STATE GOVERNMENT
MUST MEET THEIR DEMANDS NOW!
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) Ogun state chapter expresses its solidarity
with the workers of Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE), Omu Ijebu Ogun
state, who went on a 3-day warning strike on October 14 to protest over the
state government refusal to pay 48 months ’unpaid salary arrears and September salary.
The workers who are from three unions in the institution; Colleges of
Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU),Senior Staff Union of Colleges of
Education Nigeria (SSCEN) and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU), marched on major
streets of Ijebu Ode township, demanding the immediate payment of their
salaries and unpaid arrears.
This warning strike, the workers said, is to serve as prelude to a full-blown
indefinite strike, should government refuse to meet their demands. The workers
resorted to this warning strike action after the government remained unyielding
to several attempts made by them to make it address their plights
We call on the Ogun state government to immediately meet the demands
of TASCE and avoid the total shutdown of activities at the college which trains
teachers from primary and secondary schools.
We also call on students as well as Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and
Trade Union Congress (TUC) to actively support the TASCE workers in their
struggle.
Again, this strike action by TASCE workers has further exposed the lie
of the Ibikunle Amosun led All Progressives’ Congress (APC) government in Ogun state
on its commitment to public education. It also shows that the APC is not
fundamentally different from the PDP as both parties embrace and implement
anti-poor capitalist policies not in education but also in all the sectors.
The ERC has repeatedly drawn attention to the ruinous effects of anti-poor
capitalist neo-liberal policies is having in primary, secondary and tertiary
schools across the state. In fact, in our statement published in the Guardian Newspaper
on September 18, 2014 we did observe
that these policies have led to attacks on education culminating in high school
fees at tertiary institutions across the state (the recent minimal reduction
notwithstanding); backlog of unpaid salary arrears to workers; irregular
payment of salaries; lack of decent learning and teaching environment;
overcrowded classrooms and shortage of teachers in primary and secondary
schools; non remittance of pension funds deducted from teachers’ salaries;
dilapidated structures; lack of research grants and poor funding amongst
others.
We call on workers, students and parents to demand adequate funding of
education at all levels in the state. Also importantly, to ensure that the
resources are judiciously allocated and spent there must be the demand for
democratic control of allocation and spending at school and MDA’s by the
elected representatives of workers and students.
However, to bring an end to this perennial crisis caused by the
adoption and implementation of the anti-poor programs by all anti-poor parties,
the question of working people political alternative becomes imperative. To
this end, the ERC supports Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), whose cardinal
program is socialist transformation of society, and the campaign for formation
of a mass working people party on socialist programme. This is to ensure that public
resources are committed to provision of quality education and other basic needs
of life like quality health care, decent housing, decent jobs, safe water and regular
electricity as well as adequate infrastructure for genuine economic development.
We call on Workers, artisans, professionals, market men and women, youths,
students and farmers are encouraged to join and build SPN in their various
communities.
Eko John Nicholas
ERC Ogun state
No comments:
Post a Comment