Taxi Drivers Win Case against Lagos Govt!

Another VICTORY over Anti-POOR LAGOS Govt!

·The Igbosere Magistrate Court 13 yesterday Monday, November 3, 2014 discharged and acquitted the patriotic members of the Lagos Taxi Drivers on the Case instituted against them by the Lagos Government.

·The patriotic taxi drivers had led the RESISTANCE against the exploitative and repressive “New Taxi policy” that was imposed to emasculate the regular taxi operators, majority of who belong to the class of the poor.

· The Lagos State Govt illegally banned the use of Tokunbo cars for regular taxi business and put in private hands/ fronts a money-spinning ‘deal’ to compel taxi operators to buy a car worth N4.5 million only from its pool of ‘private contractors’ who work in concert with a compromised section of the leadership of the Lagos State Taxi Drivers and Cabs’ Operators Association (LASTDCOA).

·JAF on 2^nd May 2012 declared its support for the Concerned Members of Lagos Taxi Drivers and demanded that Mr. Kayode Opeifa should desist from using the Vehicle Inspection Officers, Security operatives and party thugs and sell-out and government apologist’s officers of Taxi Drivers Association from harassing and threatening the life of the concerned members.

DARE to STRUGGLE, DARE to WIN!

EVER, BACKWARD NEVER!!

Dr. Oladipo Fashina                                   Comrade Abiodun Aremu

JAF Chairperson                                        JAF Secretary

JAF DECLARES TOTAL SUPPORT FOR OOU STUDENTS!

 CONDEMNS THE CLOSURE OF OOU 

DEMANDS the Reduction of the School Fees to N50,000, its Implementation from the Current Session & Adequate Funding of the University!!

-          Immediate & Unconditional Re-Opening of OOU & Democratic Operation of the OOUSUG!!!

1.       The Joint Action Front (JAF) declares its TOTAL SUPPORT for the demand by the students of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) Ago Iwoye on the Government of Ogun State for a further reduction in school fees to N50,000 across board.

2.       JAF is in total agreement with the demands by the OOU Students’ Union that the fee reduction regime announced by the Ogun State Government is too minimal to translate into any fundamental relief to the vast majority of students, who are from the background of the poor and working class families. For instance, the medical students are still expected to pay N176, 596 while students of the Faculty of Arts would be paying N81,112.

3.       Also, JAF considers as fraudulent the pronouncement by the Ogun State Government that the new fees regime will commence in the next academic session. We see this as a desperate attempt by the Ibikunle Amosun anti-poor Government to hoodwink the mass of Ogun State voters in the wake of the 2015 general elections.

4.       Therefore, we strongly support the demand by the students for the fees reduction to N50,000 across board in OOU and this should take effect from the current session.

5.       JAF is equally of the view that all the students who have lost their studentship on the account of the inability to pay the outrageous fees, which was effected by the infamous and deceptive Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD) Government of Ogun State in February 2008, should be recalled immediately.

6.       We should recall that the OGD government had imposed the fees increment regime on 1^st February 2008 through a coercive and fraudulent agreement signed by his Government, OOU Students’ Union and the Vice Chancellor AND Registrar of OOU. Parts of the anti-poor and wicked agreement reads: “That the issue of increase in school fees is inevitable. That the increase should be gradual with an annual auto inflation index of 20% effective from 2008/2009 academic session. That fresh men who are indigenes of Ogun State should pay 30% of the recommended unit cost of training an undergraduate, while non-indigenes should pay 40%. Stallites in 200 level are to pay 20% while non-indigenes are to pay 30%. Stallites from 300 level and above are to pay 10% while non-indigenes are to pay 20%”.

7.       We in JAF hold that it is possible, on the account of huge resources of the society, for university education to be made accessible for students from poor and working class background but for the anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist policies being operated by Government at all levels irrespective of their political parties. This has been confirmed by the TOTAL REVERSAL in fees (from N193000 and N350,000 to N25,000 across board) in the Lagos State University (LASU).

8.       It should be stressed that it was the RESISTANCE by LASU Students, JAF, ASUU LASU and other staff unions in LASU that compelled the Governor Raji Fashola Lagos Government to capitulate shamelessly to the REVERSAL of the wicked fees hike.

9.       JAF wishes to reiterate the Ogun State Government should not only reduce the fees to N50,000 but also adequately fund the OOU and all other levels of education in the state, in order to ensure that the mass of poor and working class access functional education as a RIGHT.

10.    We call on staff unions – ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT in OOU to actively support the struggle of the students.

11.    We also urge the leadership of the students union not to enter into any rotten compromise with the Ogun State Government and the Management of the OOU, but should remain steadfast as victory is achievable. The students union should be prepared to organise a series of mass activities to popularize their demands among the populace and compel the government to accede to the demands.

12.    JAF insists that the Resistance Should Continue and Demands:

· Reduction of the School Fees to N50,000 and its Implementation from the Current Session

· Adequate Funding of the OOU and all other levels of education in the state.

· Immediate and Uunconditional Re-Opening of  OOU

· Democratic Operation of the OOUSUG

· Academic Freedom of the Staff unions and students in decision making on academic standards and democratic running of the university.

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!

Dr. Oladipo Fashina                               Comrade Abiodun Aremu

JAF Chairperson                                     JAF Secretary

JAF MOURNS THE SAD AND UNTIMELY DEMISE OF COMRADE BF ATURU

– A DEPENDABLE ALLY & CONSISTENT ACTIVIST!

1.    The Joint Action Front (JAF) expresses its grief and deeply felt condolence on the painful and untimely demise of Comrade Francis Bamidele Aturu, widely revered among the circles of comrades as BF, who passed on July 9, 2014 after a brief illness.

2. Comrade BF is to JAF a dependable ally who handled freely and selflessly as a duty and devoid of complaints and arrogance, all legal emergencies of JAF. He was a prominent figure in several struggles since 2003 in which JAF collaborated with its labour partners – Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) under the platform of Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) against hike in fuel prices and the wicked policies of privatisation and deregulation; and those independently organised by JAF to Save Public Education, to support the Lagos State Medical Doctors, in defence of the rights of Pensioners to a living Pension, in solidarity with Lagos Okada Riders, etc.
3. His ideology and politics as a socialist defined the essential Comrade BF as a student activist, conscientious fighter, legal practitioner, educator, organiser, columnist, public commentator, counsellor, pastoral activities as a Redeemer, etc; and his invaluable contribution to various pro-working people and human rights organisations, his professional drive and religious inclination in his short but exemplary and principled life of activism.
4. President of the Students’ Union of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo State where he graduated in Physics in 1988 before proceeding to Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). Ile-Ife to read Law, Comrade BF was the Vice President Special Duties in the 1986/87 executives of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). Equally, Comrade BF served alongside with Comrade Jiti Ogunye – as the Deputy – as the last Secretary-General of the defunct Patriotic Youth Movement of Nigeria (PYMN) from 1993 - 94. The PYMN was the ideological core movement of the Nigerian students responsible for the glorious era and legacy of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) from the creation of NANS in 1979 to 1994.
5. Comrade BF belonged to the Socialist Congress of Nigeria (SCON) from inception in 1986 and had mutually beneficial relationship with members of several other socialist tendencies such as the Socialist Revolutionary Vanguard (SRV), Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), Socialist Workers Movement (SWM), Socialist Workers League (SWL) and pro-democracy organizations across the country towards the socialist transformation of Nigeria. His practical activist activities were majorly through the Democratic Alternative on whose platform he contested as the gubernatorial candidate in the Lagos State Governorship election in 2007. Also he worked with Women in Nigeria (WIN) to defend the essential cause of women liberation from the socialist perspective beyond the tokenism of Affirmative Action.
6. He was the founder President of National Association Labour Lawyers – an organisation focused on rallying lawyers to defend the interest of workers and the artisans. Worked with and defended as a Counsel infringements of workers’ rights and abuses by Government and private sector employers against members of several labour unions and organisations including the NLC, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and Medical Guild of Lagos State, students from various schools, Okada riders, Chairperson of Board of Social Action based in Port Harcourt, etc.
7. Comrade BF was in November 2010 the Guest Speaker of the 14^th Kolagbodi Memorial Lecture on the “Nigerian Labour Movement and the Making of an Authentic Constitutional Framework for the Development of Nigeria”. He has to his credit several opinion papers on labour issues and constitutional law and had served as a member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Committee of Experts on the Review of Nigerian Labour Laws.
8. Comrade BF was part of the Campaign for Democracy (CD) at inception in 1991 and left with other socialists in SCON in February 1994 following the split on the ideological direction of CD at the Ibadan Convention to form and became a member of the leadership of the Democratic Alternative (DA) envisaged to bid for political power. Also, Comrade BF was in the frontline of the struggle at different levels including his leadership role as Vice President of Democratic Alternative (DA) in the South West, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Civil Society-Prodemocracy Network, Citizens’ Forum for Constitution Reform (CFCR).
9. Second National Convener of the United Action for Democracy (UAD) from November 2002 to February 2005 who led several resistance campaigns against the President Obasanjo civilian dictatorship, Comrade BF would be eternally remembered for his imprints in several socialist platforms as a major figure in the All Nigerian Socialist Conference held in Benin in 2003, the All Nigerian Socialist Alliance (ANSA) reactivated on October 27^th 2005 at the burial of his long standing comrade and friend – Chima Ubani. He functioned as a Trustee of the Chima Ubani Endowment Fund and as the greatest supporter of Chima’s family until his demise.

10. As a consistent fighter on the side of the oppressed classes, Comrade Bamidele Aturu alongside Comrade Mma Odi led the NATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION AGAINST THIRD TERM (NACATT) inaugurated on December 6, 2005 on an advocacy campaign against the Third Term bid of President Obasanjo, who had .plotted to tamper fundamentally with the 1999 Constitution by seeking a third term in office contrary to the express provision of the constitution stipulating only two terms for the office of the president, governors and their deputies. Also, he employed public advocacy to engage the prevalence of the decadent Nigerian State through his regular and incisive writings in several newspapers as a frontline columnist and commentators on national and local issues on the electronic media.

11. In his undying love for the emergence of popular democracy in Nigeria, Comrade BF initiated in 2008 and sustained till date an annual public Law and Social Development discourse located in the constituencies of the legal profession and the civil society as a defining platform to challenge the policy environment.
12. We in JAF vow to pursue until victory the struggle for socialism, which Bamidele Aturu resolutely stood for. We shall always cherish his revolutionary commitment, forthrightness and humility, a truly human and humane comrade. ADIEU Comrade BF.

Aluta Continua!

DR. DIPO FASHINA                        COMRADE ABIODUN AREMU 
JAF Chairperson                                JAF Secretary