· * Demands immediate reinstatement of the affected
persons
· *Time for staff and students unions to fight back
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC)
Ondo State Chapter condemns the suspension of 25 students and 6 members of the
staff of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko by the university
management. The 25 students were suspended after the riot at the university
which occurred on the 11th day of April, 2016.
It can be recalled that the
students of AAUA protested the death of one of their colleagues who was knocked
down by a vehicle. It was reported that the student’s death was as a result of
the delay caused by the university’s health center to send Ambulance to convey
the affected student. Hence, she was deprived of immediate medical attention. The
management’s response to the protest which later turned into riot was the
closure of the university for months
As condition for reopening the
school students were directed to pay a whopping sum of N25,000 each before it
was reduced to N15,000 after a series of consultation as a reparation fee. Not
only limited to this, on the 6th of May, the management of the
institution published a list of 25 students who were suspended indefinitely as
an aftermath of the protest.
Aside this, our attention has
also been drawn towards the suspension of 6 members of the AAUA staff which
included the ASUU chairman, Sola Fayose,
by the same university management on the 26th of October,
2016 just after the 3 months strike of the staff union. As reported by The
Nation newspaper on November 3, the management claimed to have suspended the
staff members in order to restore sanity to the institution as they (6 members
of the staff) are found guilty of “indiscipline”.
OUR QUESTIONS
Consequent upon this background,
ERC propose these questions and demand answers from the university management;
1.
Is it against the University rules for student
to demand a better output from the university health center?
2.
Are the 25 suspended students the only people
who participated in the protest?
3.
Why are the suspended students not invited for
fair-hearing as it is the very first step before any other action?
4.
Did students really destroy properties worth
over N300,000,000 (N15,000 estimated for 20,000 students) ?
5.
If the suspension of the 6 members of the staff
(ASUU chairman inclusive) is not to divide the staff union, why has it come
immediately after the strike of the staff union?
6.
Why were the affected members of the staff not
invited to a panel before such decision was made?
7.
Why has the suspension hammered on the
leadership of the union who just led his union on a 3 months strike demanding
for their rights from the management?
8.
Are only these 6 members of the staff involved
in the said “indiscipline? If yes, where is the report from an investigating
panel?
OUR POSITION
While we await
a response from the Ajibefun’s led AAUA management, it is imperative to clear
the illusion that the management of the institution has designed for the whole
Akungba community. The management of the institution as well as the Ondo state
government under the governorship of Olusegun Mimiko, a one-time senate
president of Obafemi Awolowo University has colluded to eliminate the obstacles
against their profit-minded running of the institution. No wonder a whopping
N300,000,000 was criminally realized from the students when the damaged
properties cannot be worth more than N3,000,000.
While the
demand of the recent ASUU strike for payment of 3 month salaries arrears and
7-months deduction, was not met, the chairman of ASUU was suspended after
tricking the staff unions to resume. It is more than clear at this stage that
the Memorandum of Understanding issued by the management is not unconnected
with their attempt to silence the union through the suspension of their
leaders, thereby shutting the staff union. We however condemn this action of
the university management and charge the staff union never to accept such
victimization.
Also, events
have vividly shown that the suspended students are radical students’ activists
that have, for long, demanded a better living and learning conditions from the
management. Even though some of the suspended students were not in school
environment at the time of protest, the anti-students management seizes that
opportunity to implement its autocratic decision without inviting the students to
any panel for fair hearing.
Given the
foregoing, we hereby call on the staff and students union to jointly resist the
victimization on their leaders and colleagues through organized mass rallies,
pickets, press statements, and lecture boycotts to demand for the
immediate reinstatement of the affected workers and students
These and many
more policies are characteristic of pro-capitalist government and undemocratic
university management. That is why ERC is calling on workers and students, in
addition to struggle for improvement and against attacks, to join us in
building a mass-based political movement on a socialist basis in a view to
overthrow the capitalist and replace it with a government of the millions and
not the millionaire robbers. It is until education is adequately funded and
democratically run and the system of government is mass based that the
fundamental problems facing Nigerian education can be totally eliminated.
Owoyomi Damilola
Owot
Ondo State ERC
Coordinator
07065184322
