18 February, 2014.
Thru:
The Clerk
Lagos State House of Assembly
To:
The Honourable Speaker
Lagos State House of Assembly
Dear Sir,
PETITION
TO DEMAND REOPENING OF LASU ON THE 24, FEBRUARY 2014 FOR ALL STUDENTS, REVERSAL
OF HIKED FEES AND REVIEW OF THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONS ON THE JANUARY
23, 2014 CRISIS THAT OCCURED IN THE INSTITUTION
On behalf of the #SaveLASU Campaign Movement, the Education
Rights Campaign (ERC) write your good offices as representatives of the people
of Lagos State to intervene in the crisis at the Lagos State University (LASU)
with a view to ensuring justice for students of the University who are being
oppressed by the Management of the Institution.
The #SaveLASU Campaign Movement is a coalition of the Lagos
State University Students Union (LASUSU), Education Rights Campaign (ERC),
National Union of Lagos State Students (NULASS) and radical student groups in
LASU. It is a coalition born out of the mutually felt need for a movement to
right the wrongs and injustice done to LASUITES by the management of the
Institution.
First and foremost, we wish to tender a complaint against
the recent decision of the University Senate to reopen the University on the
24th February 2014 for final year students alone while other categories of
students would only resume on April 1st 2014.
NEW
CALENDAR IS UNFAIR TO MAJORITY OF STUDENTS
Indeed the new academic calendar again shows how deceitful,
vengeful and insensitive the Prof Obafunwa-led University Management is. This
calendar announced by the University management on Monday 17 February 2014 is
unfair to a majority of students of the Institution especially those in 100,
200 and 200 levels.
This is because instead of opening the University for all
students to come in, register and write their examinations, the new academic
calendar is contrived in such a way that only final year students will resume
by February 24 to start examinations by Monday 3rd of March 2014. Curiously by
10th to 13th March 2014, screening exercise for fresh students will commence
with Matriculation of Fresh students expected to take place on 28th March 2014.
It is only after Fresh Students have matriculated and commenced lectures in a
new Academic Session that other categories of students in 100, 200 and 300
levels will now resume on April 1st to start their own second semester
examinations on 7th April.
What this practically means is that students in 100, 200 and
300 levels will lose additional 3 months of their life after already spending
about 16 months in the same Academic Session due to the 6-months ASUU strike
last year and other disturbances. While we welcome the fact that final year
students will, all things being equal, be able to graduate and go for their
National Youth Service, we nevertheless believe it is unjust and unfair to
delay other categories of students for another two months. We therefore demand
that all students from 100 level to final year be allowed to resume on 24
February 2014 to register on the portal and commence the second semester examinations.
We do not see any theoretical or practical reason why all
categories of students from final year to 100 level cannot resume on 24
February 2014, register on the portal and write their examinations in order to
conclude the current academic session which ordinarily all things being equal
should not take more than 8 months to conclude but has now been stretched into
nearly two years to the detriment of students.
The immediate cause of the January 23 crisis was the
obstinate refusal of the University Vice Chancellor to open the University
portal for just 1,292 students to register and write examinations. According to
the new calendar, this same portal is to be opened for final year students only
from 24 February to midnight of 25 February 2014. Why exactly is it not
possible for all students including the 1,292 students who have not registered
to take advantage of the opening of the portal on the 24 and 25 February 2014
to complete their registration and commence their examinations?
We believe these resumption dates are dubious, mischievous, divisive and vengeful.
The new calendar shows to any discerning mind that the University Management
has an evil agenda it is plotting against students taking advantage of its powers
to unilaterally define the academic calendar.
Firstly, this calendar is meant to cause division among
students. It is no more hidden that the University Management and the State
Government want to undermine the resolve of LASUITES to fight for the reversal
of the outrageous fee hike of the Lagos State University which is the root
cause of the crisis of January 23 2014 and the rapid decline in student
enrollment and decay of facilities that the University has been experiencing
since 2011. This they want to achieve by dividing final year students against
other category of students which is what has informed the curiously mischievous
resumption dates agreed by the Senate.
Secondly, the Calendar is vengeful because it seeks to
punish by wasting three months of their lives students in 100, 200 and 300
levels who are seen by the University Management to be the instigators of the
January 22 and 23 protests. This the University Management wants to achieve by
delaying their resumption till April 1, 2014 through a dubious academic
calendar.
It appears what the management is planning to do is to
single out these categories of students for payment of reparation charges for
the alleged damage to the University's properties during the January 23
protest. This is in spite of the continous opposition of students to reparation
as it was the insensitivity and highhandness of the University management
particularly the Vice Chancellor that was responsible for the degeneration of
the crisis.
THE
JANUARY 23, 2014 CRISIS AND THE IMPERATIVE OF REVERSING THE HIKED FEES
Thirdly the new academic calendar is dubious and thoroughly
mischievous because it seeks to continue to impose the outrageous fee hike of
N193,750 and N348,750 in the face of widespread agitation for its reversal from
LASUITES, parents, civil society organisations and Lagosians. This is what
explains the fact that the University Management wants to admit fresh students
and matriculate them before allowing 100, 200 and 300 levels students back on
campus. The fear of the University management is that if 100, 200 and 300
levels students are on campus while Fresh students are undergoing their
screening exercises, there could be renewed protests and demonstrations against
the outrageous fee hike.
As we have argued severally, outrageous fee hike is the root
cause of crisis in LASU and reversal of the fees, adequate funding and
democratic management of LASU are the only solutions. Today the mass majority
of people in Lagos are opposed to the continuous charging of N193,750 and
N348,750 as fees in LASU.
A genuine government elected by the people would have no
choice but to reverse the fees. Unfortunately it appears that the Lagos State
Government is not prepared to take this honourable course of action which is
why we have marched on the House of Assembly today. We assure you that we shall
continue to organize protests, demonstrations and other peaceful and legitimate
public activities until this demand is met.
TEN
(10) REASONS WHY LASU FEES MUST BE REVERSED
We earnestly urge honourable members of the Lagos House of
Assembly to consider calling for the reversal of the fees of Lagos State
University on the basis of the following:
(1) The fee hike is the root cause of the protest by
LASUITES on Wednesday and Thursday 22 and 23 January 2014 as well as the inability
of about 1,292 students to register. To prevent similar unpleasant occurrence
in future requires that the root cause be addressed. A University can only
thrive in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility devoid of disharmony.
(2) The fee hike is anti-poor and unaffordable by the vast
majority. Especially in a State where civil servants barely receives the
N18,000 National Minimum Wage, this regime of fees in the only public
University in the State is unaffordable for vast majority, contradicts the vision
of the founding fathers of the Lagos State Unversity and is calculated to price
education out of the each of the children of poor working class people in
Lagos.
(3) The fee hike is responsible for the sharp decline in
student enrollment in LASU over the past three years. LASU used to have over
20, 000 full-time students, today full-time students are only a little above
12, 000. Indeed at this rate especially when the current 300 and 400 level
students who are still paying the old fees of N25, 000 graduate, LASU may have
less than 6,000 full-time students! The wider implication of this is an
increase in the illiteracy rate of the State.
(4) The fee hike is an unconscionable rip-off of students
and their poor parents and this is umacceptable from a government that claims
to be progressive. For instance while the tuition component of the fee ranges
from N50,000 to N80,000, several exploitative miscellaneous charges like
registration fee, acceptance fee, matriculation fee, development levy, library,
manuals and even examination charges have been added to boost the fee to
outrageous levels. To make matters worse, most of the items under the
miscellaneous charges that students pay for are rarely provided or the
facilities are in such decrepit conditions such that students do not get value
for their money. For instance, while students pay between N20,000 to N50,000
for laboratories/practical/workshop/studio, the conditions of each of these
facilities are so bad that one begins to wonder what the hefty sums student pay
are used for. Also the University collects N50,000 hostel charges from 100
level Medical students while there are no male hostels in LASU. In addition,
for three years students have been paying a uniform Development Levy of N15,000
but today LASU is worse for it in terms of teaching facilities and
infrastructures. This is also inspite of other sources from which the
University receives huge sums for capital projects like the Tertiary Education
Trust Fund (TETFUND). The list of the rip-off is endless.
(5) The fee hike is a death pill which if not reversed will
kill LASU. Today there are several departments at the LASU that have less than
10 students at 100 level. Some examples will suffice:
(A) French
department = One student in 100 level.
(B) Islamic
studies = 6 students in 100 level.
(C) Law
=15 students at 100 level, 25 students at 200 level.
(D)
Department of Fishery = 60 students obtained admission into 100 level last
session. A session after, only 14 out of this are left and out of this 14, only
four have registered for the current session.
(6) The
fee hike has increased the dropout rate at the Lagos State University. Indeed
for many current 100 and 200 level LASU students, the possibility that they
would be able to complete their studies is almost zero. Also the development of
LASU into a world class University which the State government promised in 2011
while justufying the fee hike has become
a mirage. Today LASU is not a world class University but a horrifying story of
neglect, decline and decay.
(7) The
fee hike threatens the job of academic and non-academic staff as a result of
consequential decline in enrollment. Mass retrenchment which will be the
fallout of this fee hike will lead to further increase in the unemployment situation
in Lagos State and the poverty rate as huge numbers of people who were hitherto
dependent on the salaries of the academic and non-academic staff of LASU
suddenly find themselves without such assistance as a result of retrenchment of
their bread winners.
(8) The
fee hike is unacceptable. LASU is the only University owned by the State. The
State government has no excuse at all not to be able to fully subsidise the
tuition of the University in order to ensure that poor people can also go to
school.
(9) The fee hike is not justifiable. Lagos is the richest
State in Nigeria. With N80 billion IGR, Lagos State is rich enough to fund
education adequately especially if there is more judicious and democratic
management of the State resources and less corruption and diversion of our
collective resources to fund the profligacy of the rich few.
(10) The fee hike is a breach
of social contract and a betrayal of the
electorate by the Babatunde Raji Fashola Lagos State Government which
campaigned as a "progressive" alternative to the neo-liberal agenda
represented by others. We believe that
the Lagos State government cannot continue to lay claim to being
"progressive" while it simultaneously carries out unconscionable
attacks on the right of poor people to public education. For instance just
recently on February 15, 2014 at the Njala University in Sierra Leone, Former
Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu upon receiving an award of Honorary
Doctorate Degree of Civil Law, Honoris Causa said the following "We formed the APC so Nigerians from all
walks of life and social station might gather under one tent to develop the
nation on the basis of equity and shared prosperity. What we seek is a fair
social compact so that we may avoid social calamity. A core element of our
mission is to make all levels of education, from primary to university level,
accessible to all people, regardless of economic circumstance. To survive in
the modern economy, education is a must. As such, responsible leadership must
view education as a public right and no longer a luxury to be enjoyed only by
those with the money to purchase it for themselves. Government must help
financially those who can’t help themselves in this essential regard".
It is nothing but sheer hypocrisy for the
leader of the ruling party in Lagos to make such statements in far away Sierra
Leone while the Lagos State University is shut as a result of student protest
against attempt to make education "a luxury to be enjoyed only by those
with the money to purchase it for themselves". We simply urge the
government of Lagos State to practise what it preaches by reversing the
outrageous fees in LASU.
APPEAL FOR
A MORE BALANCED LOOK AT THE JANUARY 23, 2014 CRISIS
In this wise, we urge the House of Assembly to take another
look at the January 23, 2014 crisis in the Lagos State University with a view
to addressing the root cause of the crisis thereby returning the University
onto a path of peace, progress and development.
We make this appeal because we believe the sitting of the
house on Friday 24 January 2014 completely departed from well-tested democratic
procedures when without a prior investigation but relying on a closeted hearing
immediately rolled out a six-point resolution on a matter it had not properly
investigated. Declaration of verdicts without proper investigation was the
stock-in-trade of military tribunals during the long spell of military
dictatorship that held Nigeria by the jugular. Going by the treatment the LASU
crisis has received, it would seem that the Lagos State Government has kept
this odious and undemocratic practise alive.
Please do not get us wrong. It is not the wisdom of
honourable members we fault, rather it is their method which we believe is
undemocratic. For instance, after the declaration of verdicts by the Honourable
Speaker on a crisis that had not being investigated, the house thereafter
reportedly set up a committee to investigate the crisis. This to us is like
putting the cart before the horse. The first step the house should have taken is
to set up a committee with publicised terms of reference and that would
organise open hearings and publicised proceedings to which the identified
parties to the crisis as well as members of the public would be invited to make
presentations towards finding a permanent solution to the crisis in LASU.
Contrariwise, the public does not know the terms of
reference of the committee supposedly set up by the House of Assembly and
mandated to investigate the crisis in LASU. Also the committee has been
conducting its proceedings in secret while House officials have been making
highly prejudicial statements in the media about the findings of a committee
which has not concluded its work nor submitted its report. For instance in a
newspaper report on Page 18 of Guardian newspaper of Monday 17 February 2014
and titled "LASU CRISIS STILL UNDER
INVESTIGATION, Spokesperson for the House, Honourable Segun Olulade reportedly
said the following "investigation
into the crisis also allegedly fingered some principal actors, like lecturers,
academic and non-academic union members and security officers among other
officers in the institution".
Such comments by the spokesperson of the house is
prejudicial to the work of the committee and gives the impression that the
committee is only working towards a predetermined outcome which in this case
appears to be victimisation of members of staff unions on the campus for a
crisis whose immediate cause was the highhandedness of the Vice Chancellor and
remote cause was the increase in payable fees from N25,000 to between N193,750
to N348,750.
As you are already aware, students of the University
organised a mild and peaceful gathering on Wednesday 22 January 2014 to plead
with the Vice Chancellor Prof Obafunwa to reopen the University Portal which
was closed by the management against 1,292 students of the University. As a
result of the dictatorial, insensitive and provocative actions of the Vice
Chancellor, who rebuffed all students plea and at a point reportedly kicked a
female student who was lying prostrate before him, next day Thursday 23 January
2014 witnessed a bigger protest which eventually turned violent after the
University's paid security a.k.a CAMPUS MARSHALS shot at students and men of
the Rapid Response Squad invaded the University.
We believe that if justice would be done, the Vice
Chancellor and officials of the University Management ought to be disciplined
for such highhandedness against students. Also we believe that instead of
beating about the bush and vainly seeking scapegoats to victimize, the best
cause of action opened to the State Government and the University management is
to tackle the root cause of the crisis in LASU by reversing the fees and
ensuring that Lagos State University receives improved allocation in accordance
with a key component (item 4.0.2, G) of the recommendation of the 2009
Visitation Panel.
In line with the above, we humbly present before you a list
of demands representing the opinion and aspiration of a broad spectrum of
LASUITES who wish to see an end to recurring decimal of crisis in LASU and the
opening of a new chapter of peace, progress and development for their noble
institution.
(1) Reopening
of the Lagos State University on the 24 February 2014 for the benefit of ALL
Students of the Institution
(2)
Reversal of Fee hike
(3)
Improved Funding of the Lagos State University
(4)
Democratic Management of Lagos State University
(5) No
attempt should be made to victimise any student for the protest of 22 and 23
January 2014
(6) No
attempt should be made to ask students to pay reparation charges. We humbly
submit that the non-refundable caution fee of N10,000 each which all students
pay in their first years be collected together to fix whatever unfortunate
damage occurred to University's properties on the 23 January 2014.
We do hope the House of Assembly will give our humble
submission and demands a favorable response,
Thank you
Save LASU! Save the Future!!!
Hassan
Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National
Coordinator National Secretary
07033697259
Cc:
The Executive Governor
Lagos State
