Press Statement
Aregbesola and Ajimobi are to be
Blamed for the Crisis in LAUTECH
The Education Rights
Campaign (ERC) strongly condemns last Friday’s (9th December 2016) violent
attack unleashed by armed police on protesting students of the Ladoke Akintola
University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomosho.
We condemn the police
for this violent attack. We demand that the police must henceforth respect
students’ fundamental rights to air their grievances through peaceful
demonstrations.
Many students were reportedly
injured when a contingent of armed police from the Owode police station led by
the DPO, Abubakar M shot teargas at them. The students were protesting the
continued closure of the University for about 6 months now as a result of the
inability of the two owners of the public institution – Osun and Oyo states –
to fund the University adequately.
Between them, Osun
state and Oyo state are owing about 20 months of subvention. At the moment, all
categories of staff are being owed several backlog of salaries and allowances
leading to the unions embarking on strike actions to demand adequate funding of
the institution and payment of the owed salaries and allowances.
The ERC fully backs the
struggle of the staff unions because it is a struggle to resist the penchant of
Oyo and Osun to shirk their responsibilities towards the institution. We put
the blame for the continued closure of the University on the intransigence of
the anti-education governments of Oyo and Osun states.
At the same time, we
share the concern and anger of students over the continued closure. Six (6)
months of idleness at home is enough to spark anger among students. This is an
entire six months wasted in the lives of these young people for no reason of
theirs. The ERC stands with LAUTECH students and urge them to organize bigger
protest and demonstrations until the demands for improved funding and
re-opening of the University are met. We call on the entire students’ movement,
the labour movement, civil society organizations and the general public to rise
to the aid of LAUTECH staff and students by condemning the refusal of Osun and
Oyo states to fulfill their responsibilities.
If there is anyone that
should be blamed for the impasse in LAUTECH, it is the anti-education and
anti-poor All Progressive Congress (APC) governments of Osun and Oyo states. Their
pro-capitalist policies of education underfunding and commercialization is what
is behind this impasse. Otherwise there should be no reason for the joint
ownership of LAUTECH to generate crisis. Rather it should be an advantage where both state governments are committed to
discharging their responsibilities to public education by committing adequate
resources to it.
But the track record of
the Aregbesola-led Osun state government and the Ajimobi-led Oyo state
government shows they are both virulently and notoriously anti-education,
anti-worker and anti-poor. We therefore call for the unity of staff and
students to jointly struggle to ensure that LAUTECH is funded adequately and
that the University is also re-opened for academic activities to continue.
Hassan
Taiwo Soweto Ibikunle Omole
National Coordinator
(07033697259) National Secretary