By Adams
Lateef
Coordinator,
ERC UNILAG
Students at
the Biobaku hostel on Tuesday May 13, 2014 staged a peaceful demonstration to
the residence of the Dean of Students Affairs of the University of Lagos
(UNILAG) to register their grievances over neglect of hostel facilities.
This protest
came just few days after the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) issued a statement
on campus over the poor welfare conditions of students on campus. The statement
which was posted in all the male hostels of the University of Lagos (UNILAG)
caught the attention of some change-seeking students yearning for better
facilities on campus.
Condition of
hostel facilities is fast degenerating. For instance, among the two sets of
toilet in Biobaku hostel, one part has been locked up and was yet to be fixed
by the time students resumed this semester. Presently, students at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor all come to the
ground floor to fetch water for cooking, bathing or for other domestic use and
this shows the extent of neglect of students' welfare in the hostel.
Our statement
titled "Poor Welfare Condition of Students: It is Time To Cry Out"
had among its demands calls for proper fumigation of all hostels, repairs of
damaged facilities in the hostels such as the toilets and bathrooms, provision
of adequate water supply for students use as well as provision of tanks for
storage of water among others. No doubt this statement was well received by
students and it made them conclude a protest was necessary.
Students had
gathered by 7 pm to begin the protest but the members of the Hall Executive
came out trying to discourage them. Several minutes were wasted arguing on
while the protest should hold amid the counter responses from the executives.
By this time, the school's CSO had intervened and succeeded in dispersing some
students. However the intervention of ERC comrades built the momentum as we led
chanting of solidarity songs. This eventually led to a resolution for the
protest to go ahead.
The protest
started with a march to nearby hostels for solidarity with placards reading
"DSA BRING BACK OUR WATER AND TOILETS". This solidarity visit was
necessary as the poor welfare condition was not the problem of a single hostel
but a problem biting hard on majority of students on campus. Many students
could not join for fear of being victimized by the school authority. However
those that could not join encouraged the protesters. The protest ended at the
residence of the DSA which is about 15 minutes walk from the Biobaku hostel. On
getting there, the protest was received by the Engineer handling the contract
at the hostel.
The following
day, work on repair of the facilities was reported to have commenced which
shows that struggle pay. We in the ERC call on students not to relent on the
demand for better welfare condition on campus. This protest is significant
because since the ban on students' unionism in 2005 by the management, the
University has not recorded any students protest demanding for better welfare
conditions in an organized way.
No comments:
Post a Comment