PRESS STATEMENT
In the aftermath of the dissolution of the Governing Council of
the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) by the visitor to the University, the
Education Rights Campaign (ERC) demands the immediate re-opening of the
University so that academic activities can resume.
We also wish to state clearly that the appointment of an Acting
Vice-Chancellor should be done immediately to ensure the smooth running of
academic activities in the University. We demand that a democratic and
transparent process that actively involves all categories of staff, students, parents
and community members be instituted immediately to avoid such occurrence in the
future. We also demand that the demands of members of the Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union
(NASU) for payment of backlog of arrears of allowances must be met immediately.
We wish to acknowledge that the dissolution of the Governing
Council by the Federal Government is in response to the agitation of both
workers and students who occupied the Senate Building of the University since
June 6 to protest the corruption of the out-gone Vice-Chancellor, the
illegality in the process of appointing a new Vice-Chancellor and the
culpability of the dissolved Governing Council in this corruption. As a result,
many workers and students simply went on wild jubilation as soon as the
dissolution was announced. However the ERC must make the point that the
dissolution even while it has brought a deserved end to the ignominious rule of
the corrupt Governing council cannot resolve any of the fundamental issues.
The root cause of the crisis gripping OAU is government
neo-liberal anti-poor education policy and the undemocratic administration that
has been established to drive these policies. Therefore in dissolving the
council, no one should be deceived that government’s aim is to resolve the
crisis in favour of workers and students. Rather the aim is to remove a council
that had become too discredited in order to replace it with another that would
essentially carry out the same anti-poor and anti-worker education policies.
For instance, it is an incontrovertible truth that the
undemocratic process of appointment of the Vice Chancellor which was
manipulated only reflects similar undemocratic process through which the Senate
and Governing Council - two main decision making organs of a University- are
constituted. In every University you go too, the Governing Councils are
constituted in such a way that government and business interests are given more
priority over and above the members of the University community. To show how
undemocratic the entire system is, students are not even considered important
enough in a University environment to have their representatives in an organ of
their University where decisions that could make or mar them are taken.
This example shows that the entire University system is rotten. Therefore,
what students and the workers unions should be demanding at the moment is the
full democratization of the decision making organs of the University including
the Senate and the Governing Council to allow the full participation of
adequate numbers of elected representatives of students and staff in these
bodies. Only this can provide a democratic basis for the appointment of Vice
Chancellors and other principal officers while ensuring that students and staff
voices are heard at all times.
In the same vein, the ERC calls for the immediate investigation of
the members of the dissolved council and the entire University administration
by anti-corruption agencies and their prosecution if found guilty of the
multiple allegation of corruption that workers and students have leveled
against them. In essence, we are demanding a transparent comprehensive probe of
the university’s internally generated revenue, the disbursed NEEDS assessment
funds, the incomes and expenditures of the NUGA 2014 games (from which O.A.U
have been presently banned on the basis of financial corruption), grants, funds
and Federal Government’s allocations. This must be to ensure that whichever
funds that have been siphoned are recovered and used for the developmental
projects they were meant for.
We also wish to state that the University Autonomy Act should not
be abused by either the management of the university or the Federal Government.
We demand that a Federal investigative panel should be set up immediately to
look into the corruption and incompetence of the Governing Council, the flaws
in the Vice-Chancellor selection process, and the corruption of the outgone
Vice-Chancellor. Such investigation should be transparent, while its report
should be popular. This will ensure that this precedent is not misused in the
future by autocratic governments to infringe on the deserved autonomy of the
university. This will also ensure that the detestable go-and-sin-no-more
philosophy of the President Buhari anti-corruption fight is not condoned in an
academic environment where it tends to have a multiplier-effect on the future
of the country through example-seeking open minds of young students.
We also wish to state that the effect of this corruption on
workers and students has to be immediately assuaged. The corruption has
translated to the non-payment of workers’ salaries and allowances and mindless
favoritism and nepotism in the promotion of workers while victimizing some by
depriving them of their deserved promotion. The Federal Government should
immediately see to the payment of these wages and to the correction of all
anomalies as regards promotion and its process. For example, the acting Dean of
Students’ Affairs have been in acting position since about a decade ago in a
university where the constitution does not even allow an acting VC to act for
more than six months. The corruption has also translated to the poor living and
learning welfare conditions for students, and students who have tried to speak
up against that have been victimized individually and collectively. The Federal
Government should see to the release of emergency funds to better the general
welfare conditions of students as the present welfare condition is
life-threatening. For example, just few weeks ago a fresh student died of
avoidable malaria just a week after their resumption into the halls of
residence.
The Federal Government should also see to the reinstatement of all
politically victimized students. For example, Olawale Owolabi was suspended in
2011 following peaceful protests to resist the 1000% increment in acceptance
fee and has since then been on indefinite suspension. Presently, some student
activists on the same campus have had their e-portal access pages illegally,
autocratically locked-up for some months by the Registrar without presenting
any offences that they have committed.
The Federal Government should also ensure the proper funding of
the education sector and meet the 26% UNESCO recommendation for budgetary
allocation to the education sector side by side with democratization of
decision making processes to avoid the occurrence of this kind of crises in the
future. The NEEDS assessment funds for Universities which was the victory of
the ASUU 2013 six months strike and only one tranche of the six tranches of the
annual funds has been paid since then by the Jonathan-led Federal Government
and we demand that the rest be paid by the Buhari-led Federal Government.
We ask that workers and students must take the tradition of
struggle further by organizing to achieve all these necessary demands for the
peace, stability and development of the university.
Signed Signed
Olamide
Adabale Omole
Ibukun
Coordinator Secretary
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