The Protest March to Lagos House of Assembly will
Continue
Press Statement
(1) We have received the news of the
announcement of resumption of the Lagos State University (LASU). Ordinarily the
announcement of resumption this month after the unfortunate closure of January
23 is a news that should be received with joy by all LASU students especially
considering that students have spent about 16 months in the same level.
(2) However going by the details of the
new academic calendar decided this past week by the University's Senate, students' joy cannot be complete. Indeed the
new academic calendar again shows how deceitful, vengeful and insensitive the
Prof Obafunwa-led University Management and the Babatunde Raji Fashola-led
State Government are.
(3) 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.
(4) 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 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.
(5) 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.
(6) 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 to
complete their registration and commence their examinations?
(7) 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.
(8) 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.
(9) 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.
(10) What the management is also
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. We therefore demand that instead of charging
students reparation, Management should make use of the N10, 000 caution fees
students of the University pay in their first year. As we have opined severally,
caution fees were introduced into students fees for purposes of any damage to
University properties so we do not know why any new payment must be made by
students when damage which rarely occurs has occurred
(11) 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 and
the State Government 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. All this
shows that the Babatunde Raji Fashola Government is not a listening government.
(12) 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, except of course the few
who benefit from the government, 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 the Lagos
State Government is not prepared to take this honourable course of action.
(13) Therefore the Save LASU Campaign
Movement at its MASS MEETING of Saturday 15 February 2014 has decided that the
reopening of the University is just one out of several demands of LASUITES and that
until other demands especially the demand for immediate reversal of the hiked
fees is met, the protest march to the Lagos House of Assembly scheduled to hold
on Tuesday 18 February 2014 shall continue.
(14) The Save LASU Campaign Movement
calls on all LASUITES, parents, workers and Lagosians who are concerned about
the crisis in LASU to join us on Tuesday 18 February 2014 at the Textile Labour
House, 10 Acme Road, Ogba Lagos by 10am for a protest march to Lagos House of
Assembly to submit a petition demanding the following:
(A)
Reopening of LASU on 24 February 2014 for ALL Students to register and
commence the second semester
Examinations.
(B)
Reversal of LASU fees
(C)
Adequate funding of LASU
(D)
Democratic Management of LASU
(F)
No payment of reparation
(G)
No victimisation of any student
SAVE
LASU! SAVE THE FUTURE!!!
Hassan
Taiwo Soweto
National
Coordinator
07033697259
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