Sack the Benue
State CP Now
NANS Has a Lot
to learn From Benue Primary School Pupils
Press Statement
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) condemns in strong terms the atrocious
brutality meted by Police on protesting Primary School Pupils in Makurdi, Benue
State on Thursday 24 October 2013. We demand the immediate removal of the State
Commissioner of Police and his trial for ordering the firing of tear gas on
little children. We call on Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam to tender an unreserved
apology to the pupils and their parents and go ahead to immediately implement
the N18,000 minimum wage law to teachers and all categories of workers in the
State so schools can be reopened.
Interestingly the Governor of Benue State is no other than Gabriel Suswan
who also chairs the Presidential Implementation Committee on NEEDS Assessment -
a committee tasked with mediating in the strike of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU). Considering Governor Gabriel Suswam's own track record of
willful breaking of the minimum wage law which is a legal obligation binding on
Federal and State governments, it is no surprise that the Committee failed
woefully in its task and instead contributed to the elongation of the ASUU
strike which is now in its fourth month. As the saying goes, you cannot give
what you do not have. Governor Suswam's despicable treatment of teachers and
brutal clampdown on primary school pupils in his own State says all there need
to be said about his alleged concern for public education.
The primary school pupils protested against the state government and in
support of their teachers organised under the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT)
who are on strike to demand implementation of N18,000 minimum wage law. They
protested on the streets of Makurdi chanting: "No Teachers, No
School". We commend the pupils for displaying an uncommon level of
consciousness which enabled them to understand that their teachers' demands if
met would translate to a better education sector.
Regrettably this level of political consciousness and understanding is
lacking in the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students
(NANS) going by the pro-government utterances, conduct and attitude of the NANS
President, Yinka Gbadebo since the strike of University teachers started. While
the Benue State primary school pupils, despite being children, understood
clearly that in a conflict between their teachers and the State government the
latter is and would always be an enemy they would not under any circumstances
support, Yinka Gbadebo is busy parroting government propaganda and blackmail
against members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). While the
Benue primary school pupils stood shoulder to shoulder with their teachers to jointly
fight for the cause of their schools and public education, Yinka Gbadebo turned
NANS into a pro-government body and offered it cheap to the State as a platform
for the planning, ventilation and execution of all kinds of anti-ASUU intrigues
instead of proudly and respectfully joining and placing its banners in the
frontlines of the battle to save public education.
Despite being little children, the Benue State pupils have offered NANS
and University students in general a brilliant example of where genuine
students should stand during a battle to save public education. All talks by
the Benue State police and the State government of teachers using pupils to
fight their battle is arrant nonsense and insult to the intelligence of the
pupils who clearly know that aside from underfunding public education the State
government has been deliberately refusing to pay teachers the N18,000 minimum
wage. NANS, as a body, need to learn from the example of the Benue State
pupils, retrace its steps, break its links with the State and realign itself
with ASUU, NUT, the trade union movement and all the progressive forces
organising to struggle for the improved funding and revitalisation of public
education.
We of ERC calls on the entire labour movement to publicly condemn the
violent dispersal of the protesting primary school pupils by police. Before now, we had warned of the creeping
transmutation of the Jonathan's government into a bloody civilian dictatorship
prepared to stifle every democratic initiatives of the working masses to defend
themselves. However this new development in Benue State shows that it is not
just the Jonathan's government but equally state and local council governments
irrespective of political parties ruling them are fast becoming brazen, dictatorial
and despotic in their bid to implement unpopular anti-poor policies.
The series of crimes and ignominy committed almost on a daily basis by
this government in its bid to force down peoples throat the neo-liberal agenda
of a privatised, neglected and commercialised education system as opposed to a
public education system has become
alarming. For instance over the last two weeks, the Nigerian police has been
hunting down, attacking and restricting striking lecturers and all those who
support the on-going struggle of University and Polytechnic lecturers to save
public education.
But compared to all these, the attacks on Benue primary school pupils is
especially shocking, wicked and unconscionable. This chilling brutality on
little children in Makurdi whose only crime was their support for their
teachers struggle for better working conditions is a new low in the
blood-stained record of the Nigerian Police. Despite their age, the pupils were
brutally dispersed by police who shot tear gas canisters in their midst. That
no one died is not an excuse to maintain silence on this matter. In any case,
the ERC does not feel we need to wait
until little children are killed by police before speaking out.
Unless checked, we warn that these actions of the Police would be a
precursor to more bloody clampdown in the coming period as the government
continues to get more brazen. There must be a time when we all have to rise up
to say enough is enough to the brutality and violence being daily committed by
the government against Nigerian people.
Hassan
Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National
Coordinator National Secretary
07033697259 07066249160
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