Condemns Brutalization of Protesting
Workers and students by Soldiers
Press Statement
The Education Rights
Campaign (ERC), Lagos State Chapter hereby calls on the Lagos State government to
quickly find a quick and amicable resolution to the ongoing strike action of
workers’ unions of the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) in order to enable the
long-suffering students of the institution resume their studies.
We also condemn the invitation
of armed soldiers from the 174 Battalion by the rector of the institution, Mr.
Samuel Sogunro, to assault the striking workers and students who had gathered
at the school gate on Wednesday 7 June 2017 for a peaceful protest. According to a report by the Nation newspaper
(8/6/2017), several workers and the students who joined them in solidarity were
brutalized by the rampaging soldiers on the order of the Polytechnic Rector.
ERC Lagos condemns the
army for this reprehensible assault on citizen’s rights to freedom of
expression and association. We urge the army to stick to its constitutional
role of defending the country against external aggression and not to turn its
officers into the paid thugs of despotic heads of higher institutions to
assault workers and students fighting for their legitimate rights.
The three staff unions in
LASPOTECH - Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) and Non-Academic Staff Union
(NASU) - embarked on an industrial action over non-payment of 87-month
accumulated arrears of the consolidated tertiary Institutions salary structure
(CONTISS) 15 migration after the expiration of a 21-day ultimatum issued to the
management to pay.
As far as we are
concerned, the demands of the workers unions are legitimate. This demand if met
will bring enhance workers’ productivity and quality service delivery. Therefore,
ERC Lagos supports the striking workers unions in LASPOTECH and urge the state
government as the funding authority of the institution to immediately pay up
the 87-month arrears of CONTISS 15 migration so that the workers can return to
their duty posts and students can resume their studies which have been suspended
since the strike started.
No doubt, Lagos is a
rich state considering its huge federal allocation and the enormous Internally
Generated Revenue (IGR) it gets every month. If these huge resources are
democratically managed by a pro-working people government, then it would not
only be possible to provide the funds required to meet the striking workers’
demands, it would also be possible to adequately fund LASPOTECH and other
state-owned institutions so as to ensure decadent teaching infrastructures are
improved and modernized for quality learning.
Meanwhile, ERC Lagos
understands that LASPOTECH students need to return back to class as soon as
possible given that they have spent a whole year for an academic session that
ordinarily should not last more than 7 to 8 months. We therefore urge students to
join hands with the striking staff unions in order to compel government to meet
their demands. But while joining the striking workers, it is important for
workers and students to use this strike as a basis to beam light on all the
crises afflicting LASPOTECH with a view to calling state government attention to
all these issues.
Therefore while
fighting for payment of the 87-month arrears of CONTISS 15 migration, the
struggle must also be used to begin to raise demands on the chronic underfunding
of the institution, the high fees, victimization and attack on democratic
rights as well as the terrible welfare conditions under which students study. This
is the only way to ensure this struggle leads to real and substantial progress
for LASPOTECH in terms of the welfare of both students and workers. We also
call on members of the public is for them to solidarize with the struggle of
the staff unions with demand on the state government to meet workers’ demands so
that students can go resume their studies.
While we call for the
solidarity of the public and students, we call on the staff unions themselves
to embark on a series of activities like mass circulation of leaflets and media
briefing to sensitize the public on their plights and mobilise mass support for
their struggle. We also urge them to be steadfast
in the struggle and make it a mass-based one with mass meetings and congresses where
decisions on tactics and strategies of the struggle are democratically taken by
the mass of the workers themselves in order to avoid compromise. ERC LAGOS believes
victory cometh by struggle as we reiterate our call on the state government to
wake up to its responsibility and accede to the demands of the striking workers’
unions.
Signed
Nurudeen
Omomeewa
ERC
LAGOS Coordinator
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