PRESS
STATEMENT
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) considers the decision of the
Buhari-led federal government to hike fuel price to N145 per litre as a brazen
and cruel assault on working people, students, youths and poor masses. This
increase in fuel price together with the 45 percent increase in electricity
tariff must be fought to a standstill.
The decision to hike fuel price is another example of how the
Buhari government, despite its grandstanding, panders to the interests of the
rich. Just like the hike in electricity tariff, the reason for this increase is
to protect the investment and profit of oil marketers and other shylocks in the
downstream sector.
We reject the notion that there is no other way to resolve the
crisis in the oil sector other than periodic increases in price which further
increases the yoke under which workers, students and poor people groan. Of
course there is another way. That is the way of putting the oil sector under
public ownership and democratic control, expelling the IOCs, oil majors,
marketers and other profit interest from the upstream and downstream sectors of
the oil industry, government to take up the tasks of oil production, export and
refining so that our oil industry can serve the interests of ordinary Nigerians
instead of the interest of the rich it has been serving since 1956.
No doubt, this decision if allowed to stay will make life harder
for ordinary Nigerians who have been paying through their noses for months now
to procure fuel for their vehicles and generators. At a period when the working
masses are suffering from crippling socio-economic crises and rising inflation
which have led to increases in cost of food, commodities and services, this
hike will further push millions to the very margins of existence.
Already the scarcity of petroleum products coupled with the
collapse of electricity supply has adversely affected public education. It is
an indisputable fact that for almost one year now since Buhari took over,
lecturers have been spending more hours on queues at filling stations than in
classes while students spend more time at bus stops waiting for buses or in
traffic which invariably mean that they often get late to lectures. The
consequential unofficial rise in cost fuel as well as rise in transport costs
have also led to a situation whereby many lecturers and students are forced to
prioritize which lectures to attend in order to minimize cost. Besides, the
recent protests on some campuses over poor welfare conditions and their
subsequent closure by managements were not unconnected with fuel crisis
and poor power supply.
It is our contention in the ERC that the new hike in fuel price
will further disrupt public education, adversely affect students especially as
students will now have to pay higher bus fares to go to school and back. Books, laboratory materials and others will
become more expensive. This will put overwhelming pressure on working class
parents whose income has been eroded by inflation. Also the hike in fuel prices
can lead to a new wave of fee hikes in Universities, Polytechnics, monotechnics
and colleges of education. Higher fuel prices often lead to higher energy costs
for schools and higher costs of goods and services including those services
that Universities and other education institutions require to function.
Following the January 2012 hike in fuel prices, a wave of fee hike hit the
Universities and other higher educational institutions. The justification of
administrators of higher institutions for these fee increases was that their
bill had increased as a result of higher costs of goods and services.
For all of these reasons and more, Nigerian students must not accept
the hike in fuel price. They should convert the campuses into theatres of
popular resistance until the government listens to the voice of the people. We
will join the labour movement and civil society to shutdown the entire country
through strikes, protests and demonstrations until the government reverses the
hike.
The ERC calls on all students unions to immediately convene
congresses of students with a view to democratically agree on ways and manners
to pursue the resistance against this anti-poor hike in fuel price including
other policies affecting students rights to education on campuses. The ERC
suggests that students on campuses should begin to boycott classes and organize
peaceful protests and demonstrations at the gates of their campuses starting
from Monday 16 May 2016. Where possible, these protests and other actions
should be organized in conjunction with staff unions and other willing
progressive forces.
As we prepare to go back to the barricades, we are not oblivious
of the fact that the leadership of organized labour stabbed the working masses
in the back by betraying the January 2012 general strike and mass protest
against fuel hike even while the working masses were willing to fight for total
reversal. The major reasons this happened was because on one hand the labour
leadership had no political alternative to the capitalist status quo and were
therefore fearful of continuing the strike a day longer while on the other hand,
the power to call on and off the general strike and mass protest was left in
their hands.
To prevent this from happening again, activists must work harder
and tirelessly this time around to entrench our resistance in the workplace,
communities and campuses such that no labour leader can call the action off
from Abuja. We must also be prepared not to budge from the barricade until our
demands are fully met. More crucial is the need for a working people’s political
alternative that can rescue Nigeria from the grip of the capitalist locusts to
emerge from the protest.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National Coordinator
(07033697259) National
Secretary
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