ERC Condemns Rising Incidence of Police Clampdown on Protesters
The Struggle to Save Public Education Will Go On Despite
Clampdown
Press Statement
As the strike by the Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU) continues, the Police and the State Security Service
(SSS) have recently become active in clamping down on students, workers and
activists protesting against government refusal to meet ASUU's and other Staff
Unions' demands.
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC)
condemn these renewed attacks on the democratic rights to organise and
peacefully protest. The struggle to compel the anti-public education federal
government to meet the demands of ASUU, ASUP, COEASU, SSANU, NASU and all
unions will continue despite these clampdowns.
Two cases in point are the
militarisation of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) on Tuesday, 24 September
2013 and the forceful dispersal of a protest called by the NANS JCC Lagos Axis
for that day and also the arrest, harassment and detention of some students
activists at the University of Ibadan (U.I) on Wednesday 25, September 2013.
The arrested students, some of whom are members of the Education Rights
Campaign (ERC), had gathered at the University for a press conference organised
to sensitize the public on the lingering ASUU strike and government
underfunding of public education.
Similarly on 19 September 2013 at
the protest called by the Joint Action Front (JAF) to build support for the
ASUU strike as well as other unions in the education sector in Abeokuta Ogun
State, police presence doubled the number of protesters! This show of force by
the police was not just an harmless display. Actually it was meant to frighten
people from joining protest and to also
show that the government is capable of stopping the rising movement in the
education sector.
All right-thinking Nigerians, the
labour movement and civil society must
condemn this resort to police repression by the government. We specifically
call on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to
publicly condemn these assaults on the democratic rights to assemble and
protest.
We equally urge the NLC and TUC to
give sufficient support to the struggles
of ASUU and all other unions that are on strike or have embarked on strike to
accomplish demands bordering on members pay, conditions and funding of public
education. A 2-day solidarity general strike called by the NLC and TUC will
give a powerful boost to the struggle to save public education and pile
pressure on government to consider meeting the demands of the unions.
However these militaristic tactics
rather than strengthen President Jonathan's anti-poor government are in
themselves unimpeachable evidence of the unpopularity and complete loss of
credibility of the government and its anti-poor policies among the mass of
Nigerian people.
We urge ASUU and all other unions
fighting to save public education not to relent. We urge parents and members of
the public to continue to add their voice to the increasing voices condemning
the warped priority of a government that spends hundreds of billions to bail
out banks but stoutly refuses to allocate resources to rescue public education
from decay and collapse. We again urge ASUU to take the struggle a notch higher
by naming a day for nationwide mass protest and demonstration.
________________________
Hassan
Taiwo Soweto
National
Coordinator
07033697259
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