No to Attack on Democratic
Right to Protest against Bad Policies
We Urge ASUU to Take the
Struggle to the Next Level by Naming a Day of Nationwide Mass Protest
Press Statement
The Education Rights Campaign
(ERC) welcomes the decision of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
to engage in mass protests and demonstrations to further build support for the
on-going strike. Recall that right from the first day of the strike the ERC had
issued several public statements arguing for this very same strategy. We are
confident that the strategy of mass action which has now been adopted by ASUU
will go a long way to strengthen the strike and help popularise the striking
lecturers' demands amongst the general populace.
Unfortunately however the
protest actions by ASUU members have come under brutal attacks by the Nigerian
police. On October 16, protesting members of ASUU at the Ebonyi State
University (EBSU) were barricaded in their University premises by over 200
policemen obeying the orders of the Commissioner of Police to prevent the
lecturers from marching on the streets of Abakaliki. Similarly on Monday 21
October, over 1000 policemen barricaded protesting lecturers of the University
of Calabar (UNICAL) in their University premises. The police claimed to be
acting on "orders from above". Also on Tuesday 22nd October 2013,
Bayelsa Police prevented striking lecturers of the Niger Delta University (NDU)
from holding a peaceful procession on the streets and threatened to arrest
them. Equally on Thursday October 24 and Friday October 25, 2013 respectively
at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) and Michael Okpara
University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State, peaceful protests by ASUU
members were disrupted when policemen stormed and barricaded the campuses'
entrance to prevent striking lecturers from taking their rallies into the
towns.
We strongly condemn these
attacks and the undemocratic restrictions imposed by the Police on protesting
ASUU members across the country. The ERC believes Nigerians have the right to
peaceful assembly. The idea that the police must first issue permit before an
assembly can take place is an anachronistic and undemocratic carryover from
Nigeria's colonial past and is not supported by the 1999 Constitution.
This condemnable and
detestable treatment of University lecturers by the police is a national shame.
It is nothing short of brutality and harassment. The Federal Government has
completely lost any modicum of respect for the citizens. Is it not enough shame
that our Universities have been shut for 4 months while academic activities in
polytechnics are equally suspended in a country under the rule of an
"elected" government? Now added to our Nation's roll call of ignominy
is the ugly spectacle of a supposedly democratic government willfully ordering
police armed with loaded guns, tear gas and horse whips to barricade its
academics for simply exercising their democratic rights to freedom of assembly.
The Inspector General of
Police obviously has questions to answer about these brutal attacks on
democratic rights occurring right under the nose of a democratic government. In
each of the three cases cited above, the Police have claimed they restricted
the lecturers to their campuses to prevent hoodlums from hijacking their
protests. The real reason however is that the government fear that the striking
lecturers will get favourable response from the mass of students, youths and
working people if they are able to take their protests into the streets and
towns.
Few weeks ago, the same
government and the same Police allowed a rented crowd of market women numbering
hundreds to protest in Abuja and were even warmly received by a Permanent
Secretary at the Ministry of Education. Equally days ago, another crowd led by
the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) closed
down the Asaba Onitsha Axis of the Niger Bridge and held up traffic for hours
under the protective watch of the Police. Now the only difference between the
lecturers and the second group of protesters is that while the lecturers
correctly blames the Federal Government for the crisis in the education sector
and the inevitability of strike action, the latter obviously paid by the
Federal Government and cleverly using the frustration of genuine students as
smokescreen put all blames on ASUU.
While we support the right
of everyone irrespective of their positions for or against the strike to
peaceful assembly and protest, we have very good reasons to believe the police
are guilty of selective clampdown on striking lecturers and all those who in
their quest to rescue public education from collapse supports the ASUU and ASUP
strikes.
We warn the Inspector
General of Police to call his men to order and desist from harassing University
lecturers who are on strike and are protesting to fight for better funding of
public education and provision of facilities in schools. Unless Nigerians
support ASUU and ASUP to win the struggle to save public education from
underfunding and profiteering, Nigeria will continue to drift perilously into
perfidy and anomie. Already reports have it that about 46 million adults are
illiterate. Likewise, over 10.5 million school-age children are out of school.
It is these ignoble conditions in our education sector that ASUU and its
members are striking and fighting to reverse and for which they deserve support
and solidarity, not police harassment and insult.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National Coordinator National Secretary
07033697259 07066249160
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