The
Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemns the latest antic of the Osun State
government to break the strike of the academic staff unions of the four
state-owned tertiary institutions, without meeting their demands, using the
some pliable elements in the student movement leadership, and the judiciary. It
will be recalled that the lecturers had embarked on a total strike about a
month ago after several months of demanding, among other things: government's
payment of its counterpart fund into the pension fund, domestication of the
sixty-five years retirement age policy in Osun State, and end to extortionate tax
system for workers.
The
Aregbesola-led ACN government, rather than responding positively to these clear
demands of workers, has been looking for various methods to avoid the issues
and the demands. Firstly, it went to town to say the demands of the lecturers
are unreasonable and that the government has no money to meet lecturers’
demands. This excuse failed on the strength of the profligate character of a
government that spends so much on so many white elephant projects and handful
political officers and jobbers, but finds no money to improve workers'
conditions. Subsequent protest by students against the government's insensitive
attitude was brutally repressed by police in Ilesha at the instance of the
state government. The government has however gone ahead, after a kangaroo
"Education Summit" (organized by the Ministry of Information), to buy
off a pliant but hungry section within the students' movement in the state, in
order to break the strike of lecturers.
Consequently,
an apparently government-sponsored court case was filed by some so-called
student leaders to compel lecturers to call off their legitimate strike. An
Osogbo high court was reported, on this basis to have issued an injunction
compelling schools to be reopened. The decision of the court presided over by
Justice Jide Falola, who was notorious for helping the ousted Oyinlola/PDP
government send so many innocent people to jail on trumped- up charges as a
magistrate, has further dented the yet-to-be-repaired battered image of the
judiciary. It is a known fact that issues of strike and industrial dispute are within
the remit of industrial court, and not of a state high court. More than this,
it has shown the duplicitous character of the Aregbesola government, which some
months ago, was touting the idea of reforming the judiciary in the state, but
is now found to be manipulating the same judiciary for its interest. This
clearly shows that the so-called judicial reform of the government is meant to
create a plaint judiciary in the state.
Besides,
the strike action has further knocked a big hole in the nebulous education
reform project of the government as tertiary education in the state has
continued to be blighted by infrastructural decay, education commercialization
and incessant strikes, occasioned by the poor working conditions of education
workers.
We
condemn the strong-arm approach of the Aregbesola government, in trying to
behead genuine agitation of the working people in the state. It will be
recalled that just recently, the same government employed the service of a
pliant section of the labour leadership in the state to behead the agitation of
workers for the implementation of nationally legislated N18, 000 minimum wage.
That it has gone further to find pliable instrument within the student movement
leadership shows that Aregbosola/ACN government has turned this treacherous
method into a vital state policy.
Furthermore,
we condemn the action of the renegade student union presidents who are the
mercenaries hired by the state government to break the strike of the workers.
Their action, even if successful, will not resolve the problems faced by
students and workers, neither will it end agitations and strikes. Rather, it
will embolden the government, which had not hidden its distaste for tertiary
education, to further attack the democratic rights of students to functional and
quality public education. We believe the genuine interests of students are
similar to that of their lecturers and workers in general: adequate funding of
education, free but quality education, improved infrastructures and facilities,
better working and living conditions for workers, secure and decent jobs for
graduates. None of these demands can be realized when student leaders see
themselves as appendages of an anti-worker government, which the Aregbesola
government represents. We call on students in the state to reject this
treacherous action of these renegade student leaders. Moreover, students must
direct their anger over school closure to the insensitive Aregbesola government
that failed to accede to lecturers' demands before it degenerated to strike which
is the last resort of the workers to press home their demands. For students to
support the state government is to destroy their own future, as, aside emboldening
the government, they are also laying historical precedent that will affect them
when they join the ranks of the working class.
We
reaffirm our support for the striking lecturers and call on the state
government to accede immediately to their demands to save the future of the
students in the state. We believe the state has the resources to meet these
demands without compromising other social responsibilities of the government,
if only the spendthrift character of the government is curbed. More than this,
we demand comprehensive and massive renovation and improvement in dilapidated infrastructures
and facilities in the state schools (from primary to tertiary level).
We
also call on the striking lecturers to organize popular and mass actions
including rallies, protest marches, leafleting, and discussions with other
sections of the working people and students, as ways of popularizing their
demands and struggle, among the oppressed people in the state, and compelling
the state government to accede to their demands. The strike action is not
enough, as, in the absence of mass actions; the government can capitalize on the
frustration of parents and students to attack workers. Moreover, we call on all
workers' unions in the state to reject this latest ploy of the government to
curtail their democratic right to strike. If this state-sponsored court action
is allowed to stand, it will set a terrible precedent for the workers' movement
in Osun State, nay Nigeria. It should be recalled that similar obnoxious method
was used by the state government against workers over minimum wage when it
dragged workers before the National Industrial Court, to annul the minimum
wage. This should not be allowed to stand. We in the SPN support the lecturers'
struggle, and enjoin them to pursue the struggle to a logical conclusion. The
blame of the strike should be placed at the doorstep of the government that
failed to accede to the lecturers' demands.
Signed
Alfred
Adegoke Kola Ibrahim
State Protem Chairman State Protem Secretary
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