NIGERIANS,
A CALL TO MASS PROTEST TO SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION!
FG & State Governments Must IMPLEMENT
AGREEMENTS with ASUU, NASU, SSANU, NAAT, ASUP, SSANIP, COEASU, SSUCOEN &
NUT!!!
EDUCATION
IS A RIGHT! SYSTEM CHANGE IS OUR GOAL!!
Dear
Media compatriots,
1.
The
Joint Action Front (JAF), the pro-Labour civil society component of the Labour
and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) welcomes you to this media briefing,
specifically aimed at expressing our solidarity with unions in the education
sector, students and parents and to call on Nigerians to come out en-masse in
protest actions and demonstrations to SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION in the country.
2.
Today,
students have been sent home from Universities because of strike action. For 3
months, polytechnic students had their academic calendar disrupted for similar
reasons. The implication of all this has been disruption in academic calendars,
falling standards of education at all levels, a high level of general
insecurity and a bleak future for the current generation and the Nigerian
Child.
3.
We
in JAF are of the strong opinion that Governments at levels (Federal, State
& Local) in Nigeria operate anti-poor policies and this is clearly
expressed in their lack of disposition to Public Education. Funding of Public
Education is not given the proper priority it deserves, because the children of
those in Governments and their friends are being trained in private schools in
Nigeria and foreign countries with the looted public funds.
4.
Nigerians
must know that the politicians (at the Presidency, State Governments, National
and State Assemblies), top civil servants, traditional rulers and their cronies
of contractors and patrons were beneficiaries of Public Education. Also, some
of them set up private schools and universities in Nigeria and abroad with
stolen fund from the public coffers. That is why none of their children are in
any public school in Nigeria. That explains why they are not bothered when
PUBLIC primary, secondary and tertiary institutions are shut and pupils and
students have to remain at home for as long as the unions are frustrated to
resume without Government acceding to their legitimate demands.
5.
The
case of Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State is the most striking example.
He enjoyed free tuition in University of Benin, without which he wouldn’t have
been educated. Yet, the same Governor Fashola turned Lagos State University
(LASU) into a high cost fee paying university from N25,000 to N320,000, thereby
throwing children of the poor who voted for him and whom his Government refused
to pay the N18,000 Minimum Wage, out of education.
WHY UNIONS GO ON STRIKE? IT IS GOVERNMENT’S
IRRESPONSIBILITY!
6.
Government
should be blamed for all the crises in the education sector, including the
incessant strikes. The Unions in education sector are not making fresh demands.
Each time any of the unions goes on STRIKE, it is because the Federal and State
Governments FAILED to IMPLEMENT agreements they freely entered into and signed
with any of the unions.
7.
The
Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has been on a number of strikes since 2009
because Government failed to IMPLEMENT the Teacher Special Scale (TSS) that was
a product of Agreements with Government in 1992.
8. The polytechnics
were shut for almost three months because of the Failure to implement the
Agreement on the creation of a National Polytechnic Commission that will
regulate education standards in the polytechnics, Non-Commencement of the renegotiation of the
FGN/ASUP Agreements as contained in the signed Agreement, and Failure by the FG
to release the White Paper on the Visitations to the Polytechnics.
9.
ASUU
began its own Strike because of failure by Government to honour agreement
signed in 2009. “Failure 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 24th
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”.
10.
The
three non-academic staff unions (NASU, SSANU and NAAT) are also threatening
strike because Government failed to implement Agreements entered with them.
11.
If
the rulers in Government believe in the ‘rule of law and due process’, as they
would like to amuse themselves, there would have been no strikes and closure of
schools in the first instance. To the class of exploiters in Nigeria, it is not
practicable to implement Agreement that includes progressive increase in annual
budget of education to 26% between 2009 and 2020 but it is practicable to pay
political office holders jumbo pays and allowances. Also, it is practicable for
a Senator to earn more than the President of United States of America and to
spend 5% of Nigeria's annual budget on 109 Senators and 360 House of
Representatives members, but not practicable to attend to social welfare needs
of Nigerians.
12.
What
Nigerians and the general public must know is that legitimately earned salaries
and allowances by teaching and non-teaching staff in primary, secondary, and
tertiary institutions, are in all cases, less than 5% of the requirement to
FUND Education adequately. Yet, the Nigerian teacher and non-teaching staff are
the poorest paid all over the world. Yet, the Nigeria’s exploiting class -
President, Governors, Senators and Honourables (House of Representative, State
Assemblies, LG Chairmen and Councils) earned the highest jumbo pay in the
world. And Yet, Education is poorly funded in Nigeria at less than 8%, with
South Africa’s funding at about 38%.
13.
The
government has refused to implement the agreements with ASUU and other unions
not because there are no funds to make it practicable but because of their
anti-poor neo-liberal education policy, corruption and wastages including
outrageous pays of politicians in government. More money to education and other
social program like health care means less money available for looting. This is
why Nigerians must protest to compel the government to fulfill its social
responsibilities to the people.
SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION Now!
14.
Central
to Save Public Education is to INSIST that Governments in Nigeria MUST Fund
EDUCATION in line with international standard of 26% and make Education
tuition-free at all levels. Funding Education adequately means the repair and
building of new infrastructures (classrooms with audio-visuals, furniture,
hostels, electricity, water, etc) in primary, secondary and tertiary
institutions (universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and
monotechnics) and the provisions of up-to-date facilities (laboratory, books,
hostels, teaching aids, etc).
15.
SAVE
PUBLIC EDUCATION at the tertiary level means Autonomy and Academic Freedom in
the administration and running of the institutions, i.e. students, lecturers
and non-teaching staff should be in the better position, without government’s
interference, determine through democratic participation its choices of
Vice-Chancellor, Heads of Departments, independence of the unions,
accountability in fund management and to rid the institutions of substandard
education, impositions and sharp corrupt practices.
16.
Out
of 1.7million students that sat for UTME, only 500,000 will be offered
admission to the tertiary institutions. This is a result of inadequate
facilities and personnel in the tertiary institutions.
17.
The
above reasons are why Students and parents should be more concerned to join
forces with the lecturers and non-teaching staff that a university or
polytechnic or college of education using Stove to carry out experiments
in the laboratory instead of Bunsen burner is not conducive for
learning.
THE NIGERIAN STUDENTS, POOR NIGERIAN MASSES &
PATRIOTIC NIGERIANS: THIS IS OUR STRUGGLE!
18.
The
only option for the poor majority Nigerians is that Public Education be MUST be
adequately funded. The only future for the Nigerian students is PUBLIC
EDUCATION.
19.
If
we struggle, we will win. If we don’t, then we should be ready for crises of
bigger proportions, when children of the poor and disadvantaged in the society
who are denied education and would have been turned into criminals will one day
descend on the children of those, whose parents are looting public fund and
neglecting proper funding of education.
20.
There
is no future for Nigeria’s development, and there is no way out of the
recurring crises of general insecurity and underdevelopment in the country,
outside adequate funding and compulsory access to Education by all Nigerians,
in line with the standard requirements and the school environment is made
conducive for learning and social development.
21.
Thus,
Parents, Students, Workers, the unemployed, Traders, Women, Teachers, Lecturers
and Non-academic staff, and patriotic Nigerians home and abroad should join the
struggle to accord Public Education a No 1 priority.
22.
Most
importantly, the struggles of ASUU, ASUP, SSANIP, NASU, SSANU, NAAT, COEASU,
SSUCOEN and NUT and other unions for adequate funding of education and better
welfare deserve the full support and solidarity of the entire labour movement.
We therefore call on the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), as
well as the Trade Union Congress (TUC), to join forces with JAF to DECLARE a
solidarity Strike and mass protests across the country to further put pressure
on the government.
THE MASS PROTEST
BEGINS AUGUST 13th
23.
IT
IS EITHER EDUCATION IS A RIGHT WHICH EVERY CHILD MUST HAVE AND ENJOY UP TO THE
TERTIARY LEVEL AND ADEQUATELY FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT OR WE ALLOW OUR SOCIETY
TURNED INTO A HAVEN OF CRIMINALS BECAUSE EDUCATION WILL BE FOR THOSE WHO CAN
AFFORD IT?
24.
The
vehicle to ensure that EDUCATION IS A RIGHT in a polity where the Government is
irresponsible to the needs of the people is MASS ACTION. In line with this, JAF
is resolved with other stakeholders in the Education sector to kick-start with MASS
RALLIES/PROCESSION on Tuesday, August 13th
in Lagos at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) headquarters, Tejuoso-Yaba @ 8am.
This will be followed by Zonal Rallies in Kano, Ibadan, Owerri, Calabar/Port
Harcourt, and Abuja. The rallies/procession are buildup towards a NATIONWIDE
MASS PROTEST that will become inevitable should the Government remains
insensitive.
25.
The
dates for the Zonal and State rallies to follow the August 13th
kick-off will be announced after consultation by the JAF leadership with the various
stakeholders in the Education sector at the zonal and state levels.
26.
We
urge Nigerians to organise and mobilize at all levels to SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION
by joining the Mass Rallies/procession.
DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!
DR. DIPO FASHINA Comrade ABIODUN AREMU
JAF
Chairperson JAF
Secretary
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