MASS PROTEST to Save Public Education Begins August 13th!

EDUCATION IS A RIGHT!! 

PRESS STATEMENT

1.     The Joint Action Front (JAF) and representatives of the various stakeholders in the education sector, comprising students, civil society groups, academic and non-academic staff unions from across the country, rose from an Expanded General Meeting yesterday, Sunday, July 28^th with the resolve to Kick off Zonal Mass Rallies/Protest on August 13^th 2013 in Lagos.

2.     The goal of the MASS PROTEST is to ensure that Public Education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels occupies number ONE (1) priority in Governments’ policies, budgeting and implementation.

3.     The meeting agreed to intensify consultation and mobilization of all stakeholders in the education sector: students, parents, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), National Association of Academic Technicians (NAAT), Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP) and College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU).

4.     The meeting further resolved to hold a Media Briefing a week to August 13^th to unfold the details of the PLAN OF ACTION for the nationwide protest and urge Nigerians to brace up for a protracted struggle to save the future of the Nigerian Child because the extant ruling class of looters and their cronies have no stake in PUBLIC EDUCATION because their children are funded with public wealth in the expensive and exclusive private schools in Nigeria and across the world.

5.     JAF reiterates its position on the struggle for SYSTEM CHANGE to rid Nigeria of the present class of looters and work towards the emergence of a JUST SYSTEM that would ensure democratic participation and control of our collective endowments for PUBLIC GOOD.

FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER

COMRADE ABIODUN AREMU

JAF Secretary

NB:

This is what we meant by SYSTEM CHANGE:

“Nigeria is rich. The wealth belongs to the people. Most Nigerians are hungry, have no jobs, no education, no healthcare, no potable water, no electricity supply and no affordable transportation. Most cannot feed their families or educate their children. Those who are lucky to have jobs are not much different. They also cannot afford a decent living for their families. On the other hand, there is a very tiny group of Nigerians who have cornered the wealth that belong to the working people and the poor, who are in the majority. They loot the treasury and use their stolen wealth to sustain themselves in power through their political parties. They use their power to get richer and richer when the poor get poorer and poorer. This is the system of exploitation and oppression. It is the system that brings out the army and the police to kill poor people when they protest against oppression and exploitation. We want to change that system and replace it with a system where the working people and the millions of people who are sufferings under the system of exploitation will win power and ensure that the wealth of Nigeria is used to ensure a good life for the majority of the people who are now exploited and oppressed. System change is not replacing one exploiter’s government by another exploiter’s government. It is replacing an exploiter’s government by a people’s government to reorganise Nigeria and put an end to exploitation and oppression”.

NATIONAL PROTEST to Save Public Education & Solidarity with ASUU

JAF Intensifies Mobilisation

PRESS STATEMENT

1.    The Joint Action Front (JAF) held an Expanded General Meeting on Sunday, July 21, with stakeholders in the education sector, comprising students, civil society groups, zonal and state branches’ representatives of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), and College of Education Staff Union (COESU).

2.    The meeting was in furtherance of the resolution by a previous meeting of JAF (held July 14^th) for a nationwide mobilization for NATIONAL PROTEST to save PUBLIC EDUCATION and to rally Nigerians to join forces with ASUU and other unions in the academic sector from primary to tertiary levels to compel the Federal and State Governments to implement Collect Agreements on: Adequate Funding of Education, Academic Freedom, and Autonomy in the administration and running of the tertiary institutions in line with the demands of the stakeholders in the sector.

3.    The meeting agreed on a TEMPLATE for National Mobilisation and urged all stakeholders in the Education Sector – parents, students, ASUU, ASUP, SSANIP, COESU, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), professionals and workers unions (in the NLC and TUC) and the oppressed masses of Nigeria to hold consultative and mobilization meetings and rallies, in view of the PROGRAMME OF ACTIONS to be made public in the next one week.

4.    The meeting resolved that a NATIONAL PROTEST to save PUBLIC EDUCATION has become inevitable. Thus JAF appeals to Nigerians to see the current struggle by ASUU and the inconclusive struggles of other unions in the Education Sector as the struggle of the Nigerian oppressed masses, whose millions of children would be denied education and a future, should the current trend of poor funding and neglect for Public Education by Government at all levels, be allowed to continue.

5.     JAF wishes to remind Nigerians of the demands by the academic unions:

For ASUU, they are:

· “Failures by Government (Federal and State) to fund facilities and infrastructure in the universities, for the revitalization of the facilities and academic programmes;

·Failure to IMPELEMENT the NEEDS Assessment Report as agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding, January 24^th 2012 between the Federal government and ASUU on the standardization and effective running of the universities; and

·Failure to pay legitimately earned allowances of the academic staffs”.

As for ASUP and SSANIP, their basic demands are:

· “The continuing derogatory recognition of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as the regulatory body of Polytechnic education as against the agreed creation of a National Polytechnic Commission,

· Non-Commencement of the renegotiation of the FGN/ASUP Agreements as contained in the signed Agreement,

·Non-Reconstitution of the Governing Councils of the Federal Polytechnics,

·Failure by the Federal Government to release the White Paper on the Visitations to the Polytechnics, and

·Non-IMPLEMENTATION of the Agreement on migration of Polytechnic Staffs at lower grades on CONTISS 15 Salary scale, and  Failure by most State Governments to IMPLEMENT the approved Salary package (CONPCASS).

6.    The meeting appreciated the position of JAF that its intervention in the crises in the education sector is part of its consistent campaign for SYSTEM CHANGE and called on Nigerians home and abroad to DARE TO STRUGGLE in order to DARE TO WIN.

FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER

DR. DIPO FASHINA                  COMRADE ABIODUN AREMU

JAF Chairperson                         JAF Secretary

NB:

This is what we meant by SYSTEM CHANGE:

“Nigeria is rich. The wealth belongs to the people. Most Nigerians are hungry, have no jobs, no education, no healthcare, no potable water, no electricity supply and no affordable transportation. Most cannot feed their families or educate their children. Those who are lucky to have jobs are not much different. They also cannot afford a decent living for their families. On the other hand, there is a very tiny group of Nigerians who have cornered the wealth that belong to the working people and the poor, who are in the majority. They loot the treasury and use their stolen wealth to sustain themselves in power through their political parties. They use their power to get richer and richer when the poor get poorer and poorer. This is the system of exploitation and oppression. It is the system that brings out the army and the police to kill poor people when they protest against oppression and exploitation. We want to change that system and replace it with a system where the working people and the millions of people who are sufferings under the system of exploitation will win power and ensure that the wealth of Nigeria is used to ensure a good life for the majority of the people who are now exploited and oppressed. System change is not replacing one exploiter’s government by another exploiter’s government. It is replacing an exploiter’s government by a people’s government to reorganise Nigeria and put an end to exploitation and oppression”.

JAF Declares Support for ASUU, ASUP & SSANIP Strike Actions

 Mobilises for NATIONAL PROTEST!  

Tuesday, July 16^th 2013 

PRESS STATEMENT

1.    The Joint Action Front (JAF) held a General Meeting on Sunday, July 14^th to discuss specifically the crises in the Education sector in the country, in view of the ongoing strikes by unions in tertiary institutions [Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), and Senior Staff Association of Polytechnics (SSANIP)], which has led to the closure of the universities in the past two weeks, and the polytechnics for more than two months.

2.    The meeting took notice of the irresponsibility and insensitivity of the Federal Government and State Governments to the collapsing state of public education because all political office holders (executives and legislators) and civil service top functionaries at all levels of Government, have unhindered corruptive access to the looting of public fund, with which they sustain their children and cronies in private schools and universities in Nigeria and abroad. Hence, their callous disregard to the legitimate demands by ASUU, ASUP and SSANIP for the implementation of collective Agreements reached by Governments and Managements of tertiary institutions with the unions.

3.    JAF urges Nigerians and the international community to support the demands by the unions in the tertiary institutions, because the demands are patriotic and are based in the overall interest of the oppressed masses in the country, whose millions of children and wards, are being denied access to education.

4.    The core demands of ASUU are:

·         “Failures by Government (Federal and State) to fund facilities and infrastructure in the universities,

·         Failure to IMPELEMENT the NEEDS Assessment Report on the standardization and effective running of the universities, and

·         Failure to pay legitimately earned allowances of the academic staffs”.

As for ASUP and SSANIP, their basic demands are:

·         “The continuing derogatory recognition of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as the regulatory body of Polytechnic education as against the agreed creation of a National Polytechnic Commission,

·         Non-Commencement of the renegotiation of the FGN/ASUP Agreements as contained in the signed Agreement,

·         Non-Reconstitution of the Governing Councils of the Federal Polytechnics,

·         Failure by the Federal Government to release the White Paper on the Visitations to the Polytechnics, and

·         Non-IMPLEMENTATION of the Agreement on migration of Polytechnic Staffs at lower grades on CONTISS 15 Salary scale, and  Failure by most State Governments to IMPLEMENT the approved Salary package (CONPCASS).

5.    JAF declares its TOTAL SUPPORT for the ongoing strike actions by ASUU, ASUP and SSANIP, and demand that the Federal Government and State Governments concerned in the management of the various tertiary institutions should IMPLEMENT without further delay the Agreements reached with the various unions.

6.    The Meeting resolved that the National leadership of JAF should commence mobilization of all stakeholders in the education sector at the primary, secondary and tertiary institution levels, including students, parents, and affiliates of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) and groups in the informal sector (artisans, traders, women, etc) towards a NATIONWIDE MASS PROTEST to save PUBLIC EDUCATION and ensure that the Federal and State Governments IMPLEMENT soonest Agreements reached with ASUU, ASUP, SSANIP.

7.    JAF will, after due consultation with all the stakeholders in the education sector, unfold the Programme of a sustained NATIONWIDE MASS PROTEST in order to ensure that the FG and State Governments not only accede to the legitimate demands of ASUU, ASUP and SSANIP but should accord funding of public education a fundamental human rights’ necessity.

FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER

DR. DIPO FASHINA                         COMRADE ABIODUN AREMU

JAF Chairperson                             JAF Secretary