Government’s Offer is Less Than Satisfactory
But Consistent and Uncompromising Struggle Can Win More
This struggle has seen the brutalization of the
students by police shooting tear gas and live bullets as well as the arrest and
detention of some of them on criminal charges. After another daily occupation
of the Governor’s office on Tuesday June 10 2014, three students were
hospitalized due to repression by the police.
The Students Union had demanded a far more substantial
reduction which would bring the regime of fees from the high range of N197, 750
to N348, 750 down to N46, 500 for returning students and 65,500 for fresh
students. But even this was a compromise
on the original demand of the mass students and the #SaveLASU Campaign Movement
for total reversal of the hiked fees.
However, this concession by the State Government no
doubt shows that struggle pays. Without the stubborn struggle waged by students
since January of this year, not a kobo reduction would have been contemplated
by the government. Indeed as far as the state government was concerned, the fee
hike which was introduced as far back as 2011 was a foregone conclusion until
the events of January 22nd and 23rd 2014 changed the
situation.
However if students should decide to continue to wage a
consistent and uncompromising struggle until the demands for the substantial
reduction to N46, 500 and N65, 500 is won, we in the Democratic Socialist
Movement (DSM) and the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) are convinced that
victory is still possible.
This is because first and foremost, the issue of LASU
fee hike is one of the Achilles heels of the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led
government of Lagos State which many of the party members and contestants would
like to see resolved one way or the other before the 2015 general
elections. Indeed such is the popularity
that the issue of LASU fee hike has attained that contestants on the party
platform are being confronted with this reality even in other States of the
Federation. Secondly, the issue of LASU fee hike has become so touchy that it receives
a wide support of mass majority of the population in Lagos State such that if
students decide to stick even to their original demands for total reversal of
the hiked fees, the government at some point may have no choice but to cave in.
The fee hike had been introduced since September 2011.
But a combination of clampdown by the State and erroneous methods employed by
the then union leadership ensured that the immediate angry mood that greeted
the increment failed to translate into a substantial movement that could defeat
it. However, such was the unsustainability of the fee hike that three years
after, it bred a roaring movement of students supported by wide sections of
University workers and the Populace. This did not however happen without the
crucial intervention of student and youth members of the Democratic Socialist
Movement (DSM) organized under the platform Education Rights Campaign (ERC).
It was our crucial intervention immediately in the
aftermath of the January 23, 2014 spontaneous protest of the about 1,292
students who were denied registration and access to write examinations because
they could not pay their fees on time that transformed the situation. During
the spontaneous protest of January 23, angry students frustrated by the
prospect of losing an academic session because of inability to pay and angered
by the bestiality of the Police and University security who intervened rioted
and destroyed some school properties. The university was immediately closed and
the State House of Assembly immediately swore to identify the students who
participated in the riot and victimize them. Also the Assembly instructed the
University to take stock of damaged properties and set in motion a process to
make students pay for the damages.
When the ERC intervened, the current Students Union
leadership had just been elected but not inaugurated. As a result of the fear
of the Union leadership of leading a struggle while still not yet inaugurated,
a broad movement called #SaveLASU Campaign Movement was born bringing together
all active forces prepared to fight. By general acceptance, the ERC rose to the
leadership of this broad movement giving it direction. It was the strident
campaign led by the ERC and the #SaveLASU Campaign Movement that transformed
the situation from one in which the State government was preparing to go on the
offensive against the students to one in which the State government and the
University management were confronted with the ghost of the fee hike which they
believed had been embalmed and buried since 2011.
At the end of the day, not only was the state
government unable to continue the offensive. In fact the government had to dump
its plans to charge reparation fees and instead released a sum of N51milllion
for the repair of University properties damaged during the January 23 protest. While
this was calculated to deflate the movement, the #SaveLASU movement used this
concession to demonstrate the effectiveness of struggle and to drive home the
demand for reversal of the hiked fees.
It was the totality of the efforts of the #SaveLASU
Movement including protest marches, public meetings, press conferences and
social media campaigns as well as support of the Joint Action Front (JAF) and
NANS Zone D that led to the April 3 2014 meeting with the State Government
which in turn led to the offer from the Governor for students to submit a
proposal for reduction of the fees. In response to this offer by the
government, the Students Union leadership turned away from the #SaveLASU
movement in exchange for an inauguration ceremony conducted by the LASU school
management and thereafter started pursuing a unilateral strategy which sought
to keep all forces including the ERC and striking staff unions in the
University out of the struggle against the fee hike. However, the joining of
the struggle by the staff unions especially ASUU and SSANU which have gone
strike over the outrageous fees among other demands helped pile more pressure
on the government.
Indeed if the Students Union leadership had made a public
call for students of other Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education
across the state as well as parents and workers to join them at the daily
occupation of the Governor’s office, the result could have been phenomenal
given the widespread support the struggle has and this could have isolated the
government even more.
Now that the State Government has offered a less-than
satisfactory concession, the Students Union leadership needs to convene an
immediate congress for the mass of students to decide whether or not to accept
what the State Government has to offer. This is because the offer of 34% to 60%
reduction immediately means that some set of students may be satisfied by what
this translates to in their payable fees while some other set of students
possibly those in Medical Sciences and Engineering may feel less than
satisfied. To avoid division among students, the Students Union need to
immediately convene a congress to determine what the united response of the
students should be. Also staff unions and organizations like the Education
Rights Campaign (ERC) and the Joint Action Front (JAF) must be allowed to
intervene and help build the struggle further.
However whatever
is the resolution of this congress, students must understand that this limited
concession by the Lagos State Government is unprecedented in the student
movement in Lagos State. It shows that when we struggle, we can bring down the
mountains. This should therefore serve to encourage students to be prepared to
struggle for far more. Struggle is not just about expressing naked anger; there
is a method without which victory is impossible.
At this stage, it is the level of the consciousness of
students that will determine whether or not the proposed reduction by the State
government should be accepted or an offensive declared for the implementation
of the N46, 500 and N65, 500 reduction proposals from the Students Union. We in
the DSM and the ERC will however continue to campaign for a LASU that is
affordable and accessible to all. We believe this kind of LASU is impossible
without a complete reversal of the fees. The 34% to 60% reduction being
proposed by the State government will only lessen the burden on a few students
and parents. Only by totally reversing the fee hike and increasing the funding
of the University under democratic control and management that LASU can be made
open to all students irrespective of social status.
After all is said and done, the fee battle in LASU has
given the APC a bloody nose. Even if students do not fully win, the political damage
is done and the implication of the struggle is far reaching. People in the
Southwest hold public education dear because of the history of the legacy of
“free” education and any political party that stands against this can quickly
be routed. This struggle has exposed the largest opposition political party in
Nigeria as not better and maybe in some cases even worse than the ruling Peoples’
Democratic Party (PDP). In OAU, UNILAG, TASUED and UNIPORT where protests
against fees and charges have erupted, students have drawn inspiration from the
LASU struggle. Many are looking with questioning eyes at the APC than they
would have done a year ago. In the current situation, there is an urgent need
for an alternative political party that can stand for all the things the APC
and the PDP stand against. If such a party were to exist in Lagos today, the
APC would be facing a political Waterloo next year.
H.T Soweto
National Coordinator, ERC
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