SO THAT ACADEMIC
ACTIVITIES CAN RESUME IN STATE-OWNED TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS
CONDEMNS
REPRESSION OF STUDENT PROTESTS
PRESS STATEMENT
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) strongly condemns the Alhaji Yahaya
Bello-led Kogi State Government’s failure to meet the demands spelt out by the
staff unions in all the state-owned institutions who have been on strike for
several weeks.
We also demand improved funding of public education and provision of
adequate teaching facilities at all levels of education in the state.
We equally condemn police violent repression of students who turned out
for a protest on Monday 24 April 2017 over the continuous closure of their
schools as a result of the on-going strike. Three (3) of the protesting
students were arrested and later released. For us in the ERC, the arrest is
unlawful and a violation of the students’ fundamental rights. If the Kogi state
government does not want protest, all it has to do is to meet the demands of
the striking education workers’ so that students can resume their studies.
As far as we are concerned in the ERC, it is the insensitivity of the
Kogi state government that has made the striking education workers not to call
off their 93-day old strike which has led to the closure of all state tertiary
institutions. Students have been at home for over three months now, many of
whom have missed their chances for mobilization for National Youth Service, yet
with no hope in sight for even the next batch; even law students are already
missing chances of going to law school.
All state tertiary institutions have been on strike since the 16th of
January 2017 (with the exception of Kogi State University which joined on the
3rd of February due to Examinations going on at the time) over arrears of
salary owed them by the government.
We in the ERC believes that the State Government led by the All
Progressive Congress (APC) has enough resources at its disposal to meet all the
demands of workers in Kogi state and also that of the education workers in the
state-owned tertiary institutions, considering the different bailout reportedly
accumulating to about forty billion naira (40billion) which the Federal
Government has given to every state of the federation including Kogi State.
The demands of ASUU and other staff unions in the state-owned tertiary
institutions are what a serious government should have no problem in meeting in
order to end the crisis and save students the agony of further disruption in
the academic calendar. Unfortunately, and going by his handling of the current
strike of education workers in the state, the Yahya Bello-led Kogi state
government is an anti-poor government that has no regard for public education
or the welfare of workers.
Past and present governments of Kogi State have always hidden under the
cover of low budgetary allocation by the Federal Government to the State as
reasons for the government’s inability to provide free, functional and quality
education for her people. We had seen in the past situation where primary and
secondary school students protested to support their teachers when they
embarked on a strike that lasted about a year.
It is our contention that the State Government has not shown enough
concern about the three month-old strike because politicians’ wards are not
affected by the strike. Most moneybag politicians often enrol, using stolen
public funds, their children in expensive private tertiary institutions both
within the country and abroad while leaving the children of the working class
and poor masses to struggle to acquire education in schools that are not fit
for learning. This is a signal that unless students are prepared to join forces
with the striking staff unions to force the State government to meet their
demands, there will be no hope of when the strike will come to an end.
We therefore call for united actions of workers and students in the
state to take the struggle to the next level by naming a day of actions
beginning with public meetings and mass protest to compel the Kogi State
Government to meet the demands of the striking education workers.
We therefore demand that:
• The Yahaya Bello-led Kogi State government must immediately meet the
demands of staff unions so that students can go back to school
• Immediate payment of all arrears of
salary and pension of workers and retirees in the state.
• Government should put in place
measures to ensure the security of students’ welfare and academic activities
from further delay and disturbances.
• We demand improved funding of
education up to 26% of the budgetary allocation as recommended by the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). We are
against the 6.5% budgeted for education in the state this year.
• We also demand democratic management
of schools to block corruption and mismanagement and to ensure that funds
allocated together with Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) are judiciously
used for the improvement of public education in the respective schools.
Usman Teresa
Kogi State
Coordinator
09034396530
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