We Support the Strike and Call on
Government to avoid further disruption of academic calendar by meeting all
demands
Press
statement
The Education Rights
Campaign (ERC) fully supports the decision of the Senior Staff Association of
Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the National
Association of Academic Technologists (NASU) to embark on a 5-day warning
strike from Monday 16 January 2017 to compel the federal government to fully
implement the tenets of the 2009 FGN/ Non Teaching Staff Union agreement.
We call on the Buhari
government to immediately meet the demands of the unions in order to stem this
dangerous cycle of incessant closure of campuses and disruption of academic
calendar which have become permanent features of public education under this
government.
We believe that given
the sordid conditions on campuses today characterized by low funding and
inadequate teaching facilities, students, parents and the general public as a
matter of necessity must support all struggles of the staff unions to challenge
government to fulfill its social responsibilities. This is why we call for
solidarity actions to back the struggle of these striking unions and
demonstrate that the struggle to salvage public education is one that unites
students, staff and the working class.
We also call on the
striking unions in particular not to make this warning strike a mere
sit-at-home action. As the ERC has pointed out repeatedly, a common mistake of
past struggles waged by unions in the education sector as well as the wider labour
movement is to mis-interpret the role of a warning strike thus mismanaging the
potential that this kind of action has in detonating a bigger movement that can
win concessions. To be clear, a warning strike is an action that presupposes
the possibility of a bigger and longer action (s) in future especially if
government remains intransigent. Therefore, a warning strike is a preparatory
action whose essential purpose is to signal to the government that the workers
are ready to fight but more importantly to prepare the fighting forces, educate
them and mobilize them for the bigger struggles impending.
Therefore it is our
view that this 5-day warning strike can only be adjudged successful if side by
side with workers effectively withdrawing their services, public programs like
congresses, mass meetings, symposium, rallies, media campaign and leafleting
are organized. This kind of public activities will allow the unions to take
their case to the students and the general public thus exposing government insincerity
with a view to securing the support of the critical mass of the students and
the working people which would prove useful if at some time later the unions
are forced by continuous government intransigence to embark on indefinite
strikes or actions of similar nature.
No doubt, the decision
of the non-teaching staff unions to begin another warning strike, just about
two months after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) also shut down
the public Universities, is a sad reminder that nothing has changed for the
better in the education sector since the Buhari government came nearly two
years ago. Rather in many ways, a lot has gone from bad to worse at primary,
secondary and tertiary tiers of public education. Nearly two years after, there
is no known plan or roadmap by the Buhari government to address the rot in the
system. In many ways, it seems the ministry of education and the associated
agencies are on auto pilot given recent controversies surrounding
qualifications for admission into tertiary institutions.
Not only does the 2017
appropriation bill contain one of the lowest allocations to education in recent
times, there have been too many closures of Universities, Polytechnics and
Colleges of Education over the past 19 months. Ladoke Akintola University of
Technology (LAUTECH) which has been shut for 8 months easily comes to mind. So
do the University of Lagos, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta
(FUNAAB), Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), University of
Portharcourt (UNIPORT), Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko (AAUA) and
others.
In addition,
intolerance and readiness to suspend and expel students’ activists or sack
workers leaders are on the rise. So also is the penchant to use security
operatives to harass students and workers leaders. It will not amount to
gainsaying to reach the conclusion that in the last 19 months of Buhari
administration, respect for democratic and human rights has remained under a
serious threat in tertiary institutions.
On the whole, the Buhari/APC
administration, just like the Jonathan/PDP administration before it, sees
public education as a business instead of a social responsibility to the
people. This is why anti-poor policies of education underfunding,
privatization, commercialization and hike in fees which were the ruinous
policies of past regimes have been preserved and are now being implemented with
gusto by the Buhari administration.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Ibukun
Omole
National Coordinator (07033697259) National Secretary
1 comment:
Thanks for the best blog.it was very useful for me.keep sharing such ideas in the future as well.this was actually what i was looking for,and i am glad to came here!
magento development company in bangalore
Post a Comment