CALLS ON THE
BUHARI/OSINBAJO GOVERNMENT TO IMMEDIATELY MEET THE DEMANDS
Press Statement
The Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) has once again embarked on a total and indefinite
nationwide strike. The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) fully backs this
indefinite strike action and calls on government to immediately meet the
demands in order to avoid a situation where students waste away at home for
months.
We also call on ASUU
not to make this strike a sit-at-home action. Rather activities like public
rallies, leafleting, mass meetings and demonstrations should be organized
regularly in and outside of campuses to ensure that the issues which have necessitated
another strike are clearly explained to members of the public whose support and
active involvement is vital if ASUU’s crusade to salvage the education sector
is to succeed.
This indefinite strike
has been called over issues that the general public have now become very
familiar with. They are: government refusal to fully implement the 2009
ASUU/FGN agreement, 2013 MOU particularly its provision for a Public
Universities Revitalization (Needs Assessment) fund totaling One Trillion, three
Hundred Billion naira out of which only N200 billion has been paid so far,
Payment of fractions/Non-payment of salaries especially in state Universities,
Non-Payment of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA), Non-release of operational
license of NUPEMCO as well as other issues concerning the welfare of academic
workers. All of these issues singularly and collectively bothers on government
inadequate funding of public education.
For us in the Education
Rights Campaign (ERC), we find it unacceptable that whilst government finds
money to buy exotic cars for lawmakers, finance the outrageously expensive treatment
of President Buhari in London and guarantees insanely luxurious lifestyle for
political office holders, it is unable to find money to fund public education
and meet the needs of academic staff.
As far as we are
concerned, Nigeria has enough wealth which if judiciously managed can fund
education adequately and even ensure the provision of free and
democratically-managed public education at all levels. What is responsible for
this absurdity whereby a country with stupendous resources finds it hard to
fund public education and ensure a stable academic calendar not punctuated by
incessant strikes is the anti-poor neo-liberal agenda which feeds the greed of
the capitalist ruling elite who corner over 80 percent of the country’s wealth
thus leaving little or nothing to fund social services. The Buhari/Osinbajo
government despite its campaign rhetoric of change have left this unjust
arrangement unaltered which is why nothing has changed for the better since the
government came to power over two years ago.
Rather than deal with
the crises afflicting the education sector, the Buhari/Osinbajo government has
plunged it into more. For the over two years since the government came to power,
funding to public education has remained abysmally low, fees and cost of
education have been on the ascendance, poor welfare conditions and inadequate
teaching facilities are still the order of the day while the government is
unable to implement agreement not just with ASUU but also other staff unions.
This means that the
ASUU strike may just be a foretaste of what is yet to come. In this sense, the
present strike is one that typifies the abysmal failure of the Buhari/Osinbajo
government and the futility of its campaign promises all of which have turned
out to be nothing but empty words. Therefore for us in the Education Rights
Campaign (ERC), it is the Buhari/Osinbajo government that should be held
responsible for the pain and anguish that this strike will bring to students
and their parents/guardians.
Just like previous
strike actions, the government had a forewarning but did absolutely nothing. The
lecturers’ union had embarked on a one-week warning strike in November 2016 to
give ample signal that its members would no more tolerate government refusal to
implement agreement it freely entered with the union amidst other demands. But
since members of the capitalist ruling elite no more depend on public
Universities and tertiary institutions for the education of their children just
as they have abandoned public hospitals to the poor, they did nothing thus
leaving the union with no choice but to embark on a total and indefinite
strike.
To avoid the horrible
scenario whereby the strike drags on endlessly, students, parents and members
of the public need to rally round ASUU to collectively call on the government
to fulfill its responsibility towards public education. This is no time for students
and parents to take a position of neutrality in the ongoing conflict between
ASUU and the government. What is at stake is the fate of public education and
the future of the country so for that reason, this struggle is also the
struggle of all students, parents and working people in general.
What we need at this
moment is a movement comprising education workers, students, labour unions and
concerned members of the public to begin to actively organize to demand that
government commits adequate resources to the funding of education. Ultimately,
only the coming to power of a worker and poor people’s government armed with
socialist policies can begin to ensure that Nigeria’s wealth is committed to
funding education and meeting people’s needs.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Ibukun
Omole
National Coordinator (07033697259) National Secretary
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