JAF INSISTS ON REVERSAL OF THE IMPOSED LASU FEES

NO TO 34 – 60% SLASH! 

FASHOLA & HIS GOVT SHOULD STOP THEIR FASCIST BRUTALITY OF STUDENTS & ACTIVISTS!!

IMPLEMENT AGREEMENTS with LASU ASUU, NASU, SSANU & NAAT Now!!

THE STRUGGLE FOR TOTAL REVERSAL OF HIKE IN FEES & ADEQUATE FUNDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION CONTINUES!!!

Press Statement

1.    The Joint Action Front (JAF) takes strong notice of the Press Conference addressed by the Lagos State Government (LASG) on Wednesday June 11, 2014, through its Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr. Fatai Olukoga, in which he declared that it had decided on a reduction of tuition in the Lagos State University (LASU), “raging from 34 to 60 percent across the different faculties and courses”.

2.    Also, we noted from Mr. Olusoga’s statement the fascist plot of the LASG to criminalise the legitimate and commendable protests of LASU students, which he characterised as “damage to property, blockage of highways or other acts of public nuisance were punishable offences under the criminal law of Lagos State”.

3.    JAF REJECTS the so-called 34 – 60% reduction in fees, or whatever it means; which is a product of the struggle of LASU students and their allies (JAF, workers and the public and the majority of the parents who are poor) for REVERSAL of hike in fees in LASU since December 2011, when the fees were arbitrarily imposed by the Governor Fashola anti-poor LASG.

4.    JAF insists on TOTAL REVERSAL of the wicked and anti-poor hike in fees and urge parents, workers, current and potential students of LASU to intensify the struggle to DEFEAT the wicked policy of pricing education out of the reach of majority poor Nigerians and Lagosians.

5.    We recall our consistent positions that:

·LASU students pay school fees ranging from N193,000 to N350,000, in a State where the Government is defaulting in implementing the N18,000 National minimum wage. Thus a so-called 34 – 60% reduction will still be unaffordable to most Lagosians.

·The LASU tuition fee, which used to be N25,000 had led to several thousand students dropping out of the university and others offered admission not being able to enrol into the university, because it is impossible for the poor parents and Lagosians , who constitute more than 90% of those living below the poverty line, to pay such outrageous fees.

·The LASG is bent on its anti-poor Education policies, which explain why it refuses to adequately fund public education, in order to make Lagos the exclusive preserve of few Rich at the expense of the majority poor parents and students that will never be able to pay.

FASHOLA & HIS GOVT SHOULD STOP THEIR FASCIST BRUTALITY OF STUDENTS & ACTIVISTS!!

6.    We salute the LASU students for their defiance to the undemocratic and unconstitutional repression of their legitimate protests by the LASG. We note that the continuous protests by the LASU students to Governor Fashola’s office have been peaceful and JAF condemns the unprovoked brutality the Hakeem Odumosu trigger-happy police bandits have inflicted on the students in the past one week.

7.    JAF holds that the resort by Fashola’s LASG to brutality and fascist acts should not DETER the students from insisting on TOTAL REVERSAL of the hike in fees.

IMPLEMENT AGREEMENTS with LASU ASUU, NASU, SSANU & NAAT Now!!

8.    JAF finds unacceptable Mr. Olukoga’s expression in the aforesaid press conference that LASU ASUU “should immediately call off their strike and ensure the resumption of normal academic activities”. The striking unions in LASU, especially, ASUU, should not be expected to go back to work if the Lagos Government does not meet the demands of the lecturers for just conditions of service and implementation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreements, which the LASG has endorsed

9.    As far as we in JAF are concerned, the issues in LASU remain:

· REVERSAL OF HIKE in FEES

·Adequate funding of the University System in line with subsisting Collective Agreements with ASUU

·Removal of Unjust Conditions of Service and Implementation of Agreements reached with all the unions in LASU (ASUU, NASU, SSANU & NAAT).

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!       

ALUTA CONTINUA!!

Dr. Oladipo Fashina                                          Comrade Abiodun Aremu

JAF Chairperson                                              JAF Secretary

JAF Positions on the Boko Haram Insurgency and the State of the Nation

PRESS STATEMENT

1)    That JAF stands totally against this latest move of imperialist military intervention to recolonise Nigeria.

2)    That the current situation is a product of the crisis of neo-colonial capitalism and economic domination.

3)    That the Nigerian ruling class, which is a class of direct agents of imperialism, is responsible for the maintenance of the neo-colonial structure, has further degenerated and as a result created more serious crises in the economic, political and social lives of the downtrodden.

4)    That based on the crisis and the social explosion that will certainly flow from it, imperialism has lost its confidence, in the ability of its agents, the Nigerian ruling class, to sustain its structure of profit and exploitation. This is the real motive that accounts for their drive to put military boots directly on the ground.

5)    The claim that they want to come and rescue our girls is nothing but a smokescreen. They always need an excuse to intervene and subjugate the masses.

6)    That the current military intervention will inevitably be exposed as their forces are primarily against the masses and to defend big business and imperialist interests.

7)    That on their agenda is the continuous imposition of IMF and World Bank policies.

8)    That it is the inherent anti-poor policies of the successive capitalist governments and the overall failure of capitalism that create the fertile ground for the emergence and growth of the right wing inspired terror in the country.

9)    That there is the urgent need for the working class and oppressed masses to build a formidable political alternative capable of providing effective leadership against the Nigerian ruling elites and their masters.

10)  That unfortunately, the leadership of Labour is not providing the needed class leadership and must be challenged to do so. We must assist the labour movement to organise the masses for political power.

11) That around the country, the masses are in revolt against the system. In Northeast Nigeria, community based defence squads have been set up by the masses to fight terrorists.

12) That the crisis plaguing the society will not subside with the presence of imperialist forces, but rather, it will get worse.

13) The key task before JAF is to stimulate the process of building the revolutionary political alternative for the Nigerian masses with a clear cut socialist program.

14) We commend the resilience and resistance of self-defence groups popularly called Civilian JTF in the Northeast in the fight against the BH insurgents. However, the Civilian JTF must be under the democratic control of the communities.

15) We urge the working people across the country to be vigilant and be prepared to defend their environment against all forms of terrorist and insurgency attacks with the formation of democratic self defence committees.

16) JAF is in solidarity with the rank and file in the military and in support of the rights of the rank and file soldiers and other armed forces to form or belong to a trade union.

17) Nigerian masses should exercise the RIGHT to Self defence in the face of the failure by the Nigerian State to protect life and property.

18) JAF urges its Labour partners and the oppressed Nigerians to join forces in working towards the emergence of a Political Alternative to the present ruling class’ political parties in pursuit of political power, with which to drive Nigeria on the path of Socialist transformation.

FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER!

Dr. Oladipo Fashina                          Comrade Abiodun Aremu

JAF Chairperson                                 JAF Secretary