Potential Exists For Further Actions
For an Immediate Congress of the NANS ZoneD
Next Step Should Be Mobilization for a One-day Lecture Boycott and Mass Protest
By H.T. Soweto, National Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign (ERC)
October 1st saw movement by students against fee hike and education
underfunding across 3 states. The biggest demo was at the University of
Ibadan. Over 2,000 came out. The South West leadership of the National
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) also led a demo in Lagos which
could have been bigger if the leadership had done a proper mobilization.
The Lagos demo was more like something the leadership rushed into than a
properly thought-out action. Nevertheless this demo is an interesting
and welcomed development given that for years NANS has remained largely
fazed by the various neo-liberal capitalist attacks on public education.
The protests on October 1st may not have made any splash in the news
media, nevertheless this was an important movement that present the
potential for building a coordinated mass campaign against education
under funding and fee hike. Weeks before October 1st, the ERC had
launched a new campaign against fee hike and education
commercialization. A key slogan of the campaign is the demand for
coordinated lecture boycotts and mass actions to demand reversal of
hiked fees and increase in education funding. Activities of the campaign
consist of pasting of posters, circulation of leaflets and discussion
with students and education workers on the need to build a movement to
challenge education attacks.
So far the response has been impressive. Many eagerly accept our
leaflets and are willing to join the campaign. The large turnout on
October1st of over 2,000 at the University of Ibadan (U.I) shows how
much the campaign met students expectations. Such is the anger on
campuses at fee hikes and education underfunding that many have called
the ERC wanting to know what is next. This mood is not surprising given
Nigeria's impressive growth rate and yet the unrelenting destruction of
public education at all levels, record-level fee hikes and reduction in
funding to higher institutions. Many have now begun to realize that the
problem is not lack of money to fund education but lack of a pro-poor
government that can and is willing to do so.
This mood is further reflected in the number of students willing to
join the DSM and the campaign as well as in paper sales. Many more who
did not join the protest on October 1st are willing to participate in
subsequent mass actions. All that is needed is a clear program from the
NANS Zone D leadership to build and properly mobilize for a wider
movement linking together students on all campuses in the South West
around a program of Action against fees, under funding and other
neo-liberal capitalist attacks.
For instance the NANS Zone D did not do proper mobilization at the
Lagos State University (LASU) where the biggest attack is taking place
and the most anger among students. Over 2,000 candidates abandoned their
admission early in the year when fees was increased. An academic
session down the line, anger still boils as the few first year students
who managed cobble together the sky-high fees to secure admission are
not willing to go on paying. And they said this in no uncertain language
months ago when in the middle of examinations they embarked on protest.
Despite the compromises of the students' union leadership, anger will
again rise to the surface when the University resumes in the next few
months. Similar situation exists on other campuses across the country.
At the Obafemi Awolowo University where the management has been doing
everything possible to prevent the restoration an independent union,
potential exist to mobilize for actions around a program of democratic
rights including demands for recognition of the right to organize,
immediate de-proscription of the union, immediate elections and
withdrawal of all undemocratic steps already taken to make impossible an
independent union.
There is need to build a wider movement that links all these issues
together and strive to mobilize for series of actions around them. This
means the NANS Zone D has to come up with a clear program to mobilize.
An immediate congress of the Zone will play important role in reviewing
the October 1st demo and discussing what the next steps should be. As an
immediate next step, the ERC is calling for a one-day lecture boycott
and mass protest that can provide the springboard for further actions.
This will require proper mobilization through rallies, congresses on all
campuses, posters, leaflets and press campaign to get a wide number of
students informed and involved.
A successful movement against education attacks in the South West can
provide a potential for the development of a nationwide movement that
can link together students of all campuses in action against government
neo-liberal education policies and for free and democratically-managed
public education system. To help build this movement, the ERC will
continue its campaign by visiting more campuses we have not yet reached
with posters and leaflets urging students to join us for a fightback.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing, nice post! Post really provice useful information!
Công ty vận chuyển hàng nước ngoài FadoExpress, hàng đầu chuyên vận chuyển, chuyển phát nhanh siêu tốc đi khắp thế giới, nổi bật là dịch vụ gửi hàng đi mỹ, gửi hàng đi nhật và gửi hàng đi pháp và dịch vụ chuyển phát nhanh đi hàn quốc uy tín, giá rẻ
Post a Comment