*Condemn Oronsaye Report *Call for Proper Funding ofEducation
By Olubanji Oluwole
Students
of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in joined a protest march organized
by the university’s branch of Education Rights Campaign (ERC) against fees,
attacks on democratic rights and general decadence in the educational sector. The
ERC had circulated leaflet, held a public meeting and addressed students on the
adverse implication of the recommendations of the Federal Government Stephen Oronsaye
for introduction tuition fee that could range from N450, 000-N525, 000 and how
to fight to defeat the anti-poor agenda. Of course, students agreed that the
consequences of this action would range from surging drop out of students from
tertiary institutions, aggravating plights of their poor and toiling parents,
and an upward increase in rate of crime. This made Great Ife students under the
banner of ERC show to the thieving ruling elites who were busy commemorating 52
years of looting that students are preparing for a fight back.
The
protest which started by 9am took off from the Anglo-Moz car park with students
carrying different placards bearing various inscriptions. This depicted their
displeasure concerning the educational sector and their demands. Some of the
inscriptions on the placards are; ‘N450, 000-N525, 000 tuition we can’t pay’,
‘we demand 26% budgetary allocation to education’, ‘No to Oronsaye committee
report’, ‘No to education underfunding’, ‘we demand a democratic and
independent union’, ‘pay N40, 000 COSA to all students now’ and many more. Worthy of note was the social
consciousness displayed by Great Ife students, who despite attempts by the
administration to cripple students’ union activities through an illegal ban on
the union came out of their rooms not minding the heavy presence of the
security outfit of the university to join the protest. The students also used
the October 1 protest to agitate for the democratic restoration of OAU students’
union.
The
procession eventually ended at the Students’ Union Building (SUB) with speeches
from student activists. Addressing the students were Com Odun (Gen-Sec, DSM OAU
branch), Com Govern (Coordinator, ERC OAU branch), Com Sammie (Chairman
Students’ Security Committee), Com. Engels (Secretary, ERC OAU). In Com. Odun’s
address, he pointed out that protest explosion on Independence Day across the
country is a sign that Nigerians are displeased about situation of things in
the country. He reiterated the demand of ERC for adequate funding of education
and democratic management of the institutions with elected representatives of
workers and students. He also assured the crowd that the ERC would continue to
agitate and mobilize students for the restoration of the students’ union and the
improvement in learning atmosphere and general welfare.
For
us in the ERC the mass actions nationwide by students on Independence Day show
that students are prepared to stage fight-back against attacks on public education.
What is needed is a formidable students’ movement that can provide leadership
and link struggle to the overall struggle of the working people and youths against
the entire anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist policies. We strongly maintain our
firm opposition to fee hike under any guise. We strongly believe that the
resources at the disposal of government at all levels are enough to provide
free and functional education.
The
OAU branch of the ERC also sees the mass action of students as not the end of
the fight against government attack on education but as the beginning of a
campaign for more coordinated mass action in the future.
Launches new campaign to fight fees and education
underfunding
At this critical
point in time when government at all levels is hell-bent at intensifying
attacks on public education and thereby making education an exclusive preserve
of the rich, the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) Obafemi Awolowo University
(OAU) branch organized a public symposium with a view to sensitizing students
as well as the general public on the need for an organised fight back.
The situation on
the University campus is hardly exciting. After 2 years of proscription of the
Students union, the generality of students are reeling from a welfare condition
that has sharply gone from bad to worse over the last one year. Basic supply of
water and light to hostels and academic areas are no longer guaranteed. Lacking
a platform to fight back, most students are largely apathetic.
In spite of
this, over 70 students gathered in the Awolowo hall cafeteria – the venue of
the symposium – to listen to the speakers and participate in the discussion. In
attendance too were five members of the DSM from Oyo State
.
Leading the
discussion, Kola Ibrahim (Secretary of the DSM in Osun State) spoke on the
on-going privatization of electricity. This is an attempt to hand over the fate
of millions of Nigerians and indeed the Nigerian economy to the profit-oriented
caprices of a handful of big businesses and imperialism. Asides that is the
fact that the policy will deny a vast majority of Nigerians the access to
electricity as distribution to communities will be profit driven and at the
discretion of the corporation.
The only way
Nigerian citizens can be assured of regular and affordable power supply is by
nationalizing the power sector and placing it under the democratic control and
management of the workers, professionals and communities.
Given the attack
on independent unionism in the university, it was natural that the issue that
gripped students’ attention the most was the plan of the management to restore
the union which is looking more and more like a scheme to bring in a pliant Students’
Union through the back door. What with the plans of the Management to rewrite
the union constitution and make academic qualifications the requirement for
contest in Students’ Union elections.
As Dr. Kehinde
Ajilake (financial secretary of the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU), OAU chapter) pointed out, the only reason the University authorities
are talking of restoring the union is because of the need to set up a budget
monitoring committee (one of the aspects of FGN/ASUU 2009 agreement) which must
have a representative of the Students’ Union as well as staff unions. According
to her, were it not for this the University authorities would not be interested
in restoring the union because of its fears of the potency of an organized
studentry.
KKk
Kola Ibrahim, Secretary DSM Osun State
Abbey Trotsky (DSM
Coordinator, Oyo State Chapter) spoke on the mass poverty and misery vast
majority of Nigerians are being subjected to despite the huge wealth and
resources at the disposal of government at all levels. A staggering sum of 3 billion
dollars is realized from sales of crude oil per day. This only reveals a
fraction of the unprecedented oil wealth receipt of the country which has yet
not translated into transformation of the lives of vast majority of its
citizens. A recent survey of the National Bureau of Statistics has it that over
70% of Nigerians are living below poverty line ($2 per day).
He called for a
mass political alternative of the working class and poor to wrest power from
the current thieving capitalist ruling elites. He therefore called on the mass
of students, workers, youths and the poor to join the Socialist Party of
Nigeria (SPN) – formed by the DSM - as a means towards building a mass political
alternative that can put an end to the gross inequality enthroned by the
exploitative capitalist system.
Soweto, the
National Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), introduced the new
campaign against fee hike and education under funding. He called for mass
action against the Oronsaye committee report whose recommendation would mean an
introduction of tuition fee ranging from N450, 000-N525, 000. This would have
serious negative implications for Nigerian students as well as their poor
working class parents.
It would lead to
mass drop out and layoff of staff as several departments and faculties would
have to be scrapped due to the low turnout of students/applicants. This is the
disaster looming at the Lagos State University today where fees have been hiked
to between N100, 000 to N348, 750!There
is urgent need for an organized national resistance against this attack on
public education.
To stop these
attacks, the ERC is calling for days of actions including coordinated lecture
boycotts and mass protests to demand adequate funding of education and reversal
of all hiked fees. This is one of the central points of the new campaign.
Leaflets and posters have been produced to be circulated around campuses urging
activists, Students’ Unions and the National Association of Nigerian Students
(NANS) to begin mobilization for such nationally coordinated mass actions. The
campaign is also urging for solidarity from staff unions and education workers.
In the course of
the debate, 18 students chose to join the DSM. Five, four of whom were female,
attended the branch meeting the following day. We also sold 5 copies of the
Socialist Democracy (SD). These modest gains again show the potential for
building a revolutionary organization on campuses despite the ebb in students’
struggle.
In OAU where
radical ideas have been under authorities’ sponsored attacks over the last
three years, this modest success is a big encouragement and points to the
possibility of our ideas acquiring a mass force. We intend to double our
efforts at consolidating on the contacts, making new ones and building the
branch ideologically and politically especially through the on-going campaign
for restoration of an independent union and against education under funding.
“Free
education is Possible if Nigeria’s Resources is Under Public Democratic Control
and Management”
By Moshood
Oshunfurewa and Chinedu Daniel
On Friday 14
September 2012, the ERC’s annual free summer coaching for the year 2012 came to
an end with a colorful closing ceremony and symposium. The event was held at
the Anglican primary school, Arumoh street, Ajegunle – venue of the over 6-week
coaching. About 300 students participated in the 6-week coaching with about 33
volunteer teachers.
The free summer coaching is an annual
program of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) in Ajegunle to provide free
teaching to senior secondary school students who cannot afford the cost of
private coaching centres. Poverty in Ajegunle
(a sprawling urban slum in the heart of Lagos - ACN’s phoney mega city) is
phenomenal. So are the housing condition and education facilities.
The purpose of the program was also
to demonstrate the possibility of free education. As speakers after speakers
pointed out, the free coaching is a challenge to government at all levels and a
condemnation of the lip-service which opposition political parties pay to
education funding.
The ERC is a campaigning platform of
the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and it takes up issues of education
under funding, commercialization, fee hikes and other attacks on education
linking this with the necessity of a movement to change society.
A cross section of students
About
300 students participated in the 6-week coaching with about 33 volunteer
teachers. Speaking at the closing ceremony were Dagga Tolar (Chairman Lagos
State Association of Nigerian Authors and member of the Democratic Socialist
Movement), Hassan Taiwo Soweto (ERC National Coordinator) as well as other
invited guests.
Close
to 500 people were in attendance including parents and people from the Ajegunle
community many of whom excitedly joined the program. Notebooks, text books on varying subjects and novels were
presented to sixteen students who performed well in their study and those with
regular class attendance during the coaching. About 6 television and
print media organizations covered the closing ceremony. Interestingly, Indomie
noodles brought free lunch for the students and volunteer teachers.
The
program, which was anchored by two secondary school students (both students at
the coaching) opened with a rendition of ERC anthem. Afterwards Ifeoma Obi (a
member of the DSM) gave a key note address in which she stated that the ERC
lesson had proved that free public funded education is possible in Nigeria
especially if society’s resources are appropriately and democratically managed.
According to her, it is possible to wipe off illiteracy from society. This is
why the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) is building the ERC as a
campaigning platform to mobilize for actions against government neo-liberal
education policies.
Next
was time for poetry recitation. Hope Patrick, a Senior Secondary School 1 student
read a beautiful poem dedicated to the ERC. Another – a budding stand-up
comedian - treated the audience to laughter as he reeled off one joke after
another.
There
were also drama performances in which students argued the case for free
education with safe learning environment and up-to-date teaching facilities. One
of the drama performances was presented by AJ house of poetry. The
demonstration in drama of these rights helped to further enlighten the audience
on the rights to education and the necessity of taking actions to enforce them.
There were also ballad dances, singing and riddles.
AJ Dagga Tolar, Chairman Association of Nigerian Authors Lagos state Chapter, speaking at the event
These
performances were followed by speeches from Dagga Tolar and Soweto on the
theme: “The condition of education and prospect for the future”. They used the
opportunity to condemn the false free and compulsory education policy of the
Lagos State government and the hike of fees at the Lagos State University
(LASU). They also called for the provision of free and functional public funded
education under democratic management.
Dagga Tolar highlighted government’s
neo-liberal capitalist policies as what is fundamentally responsible for the collapse
and degeneration of public schools. Nigeria is making huge revenue daily from
the sales of crude oil, but looking at the condition of public education we
need to ask where these monies are. He called for a poor and working people’s
government as the only way to take control of Nigeria’s resources from the
hands of the capitalist looters and begin to use these resources democratically
to fund education and improve people’s living standards.
Soweto took up the claim of the
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) –led Lagos State government’s claim of
implementing free education in public secondary schools. This is not just a lie
but the condition of public education has deteriorated seriously under the
12-year reign of the party in Lagos. He pointed to the astronomic fee hike at
the Lagos State University (LASU) as an attack that aims to shut the door on
the thousands of school students whose parents are so poor that they cannot
even afford the cost of summer coaching.
This also points to the anti-poor
character of the ACN despite their attempt to pass themselves off to voters as
the progressive wing of the ruling class. He delved into history to show how
the current anti-poor education policy of the ACN contradicts the free
education policy of their acclaimed progenitor – late chief Obafemi Awolowo and
his party in the first and second republics. Despite limitations, the free
education program of the Action Group (AG) in the first republic opened up
access to education to vast majority in the old western region. Now today the
ACN which is the purported political offspring of the AG is doing the exact
opposite – shutting the door of education in the faces of vast majority as LASU
fee hike demonstrates.
HT Soweto, National Coordinator of ERC
While the members of the Nigerian
ruling class from all political parties sing the chorus that free education is
not possible, a majority, if not all, of the present political office holders
benefited from the free education program especially in the old western region.
Without this policy, many of them would be illiterates today. Now with Nigeria
earning several times from the sale of crude oil than was ever possible when
cash crop farming constituted the major economic activity, the capitalist
looters continue to say free education is not possible.
He alighted to students that the ERC free
coaching is to prove that free public education is possible in Nigeria. This is
why the DSM not only fight education attacks, we also fight and organize to
overthrow capitalism in Nigeria and install a workers and poor people’s
government which armed with democratic socialist economic policies of public
ownership and democratic workers management of key sectors of the economy can
ensure society’s resources is used judiciously in the interest of the vast
majority. Under these capitalist locusts, the new generations of youths have a
lot to fight for. They have to fight to improve their present conditions as
well as to secure their future. Linked with the pricing of education out of the
reach of the poor is the crisis of unemployment with over 28 million youth
unemployment.
One of the students receiving prizes from Comrade Victor Osakwe, member of DSM's NEC
Contributing to the discussion, Robert
O. Gwawoh (a volunteer teacher) commended the ERC for introducing free summer
coaching in the community. Ocho (a secondary school student and DSM member)
urged his colleagues to be active in the campaigns of the ERC against
government’s neo-liberal education policies.
