All Students Must write Exams
PRESS STATEMENT
The Socialist Party of Nigeria
(SPN) holds that the Lagos state APC government with its anti-poor policies is
responsible for the current crisis at the Lagos State University (LASU) that
has led to its closure by the management. This latest closure has come just a
few weeks after the university was reopened following the end of 6-month strike
by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The students who could not pay school fees on
time went on protest after they were denied opportunity to write examination
even when many of them had struggled to raise the outrageous fees. According to
reports, 1,292 students were affected by closure of registration exercise because
of the inability to pay on time. It should be recalled that the school fee of
the university was astronomically increased from N25,000 to a regime of fees
ranging from N193,750 to
N348,750 depending on
courses in September 2011. We demand the immediate reversal of these outrageous
school fees which are beyond the reach of students from poor and working class
background. All students must be allowed to register and write the
examinations.
We also demand the immediate
reopening of the university without payment of reparation by students. No
student must be victimized on account of the crisis. The management of the
university led by Prof John Obafunwa should be held responsible for the
degeneration of the crisis because of its brutal insensitivity to the plight of
the affected students out of rabid compliance to the anti-poor policy thrust of
the APC Fashola-led government of Lagos. Rather, adequate medical attention and
compensation should be paid to the students who were seriously injured from
vicious repression of the protest by the armed police invited by the
management.
The University’s Vice chancellor
Prof. Obafunwa is so blind to the reality of daily struggle for survival by the
average Lagosian and difficulty of raising such huge amount of money as he was
reported to have accused the students who could not pay of choosing to be
negligent and, according to him, “that was why they failed to pay and register”
(Vanguard January 25, 2014). Many
parents have to borrow or sell properties in order to pay these obnoxious
school fees. But for Obafunwa, “the question is ‘do we really want a new LASU?”
(Vanguard January 25, 2014). In other words, the new LASU is one that does not
have place for children of the poor and working class parents. This explains
why the government is charging as high as N350, 000 for University education in
a state where the minimum wage is N18,000!
Indeed, what LASU crisis has
further underscored is the vacuity and falsehood of the claim of the APC to
being a progressive party. The university owned by Lagos state government being
showcased as the model of governance by the APC charges the highest school fees
at any public university in Nigeria.
This and other anti-poor policies and conducts of the Lagos state
government are parts of the reasons that the APC must not been taken by the
working masses as a genuine alternative to the equally anti-poor PDP it is
desperate to replace in power. Unfortunately, there is no party that represents
the interest and aspiration of the working people. Labour Party formed by NLC
is now essentially a surrogate political platform of PDP and a trashcan of
anti-poor politicians who could not get the tickets in PDP or APC. The working people must work and strive for
formation of their own party while contending and resisting the anti-poor
neo-liberal capitalist attacks. This is why the SPN is seeking official
registration with INEC in order to represent the interests of the working
masses within and outside political offices while campaigning and working for a
mass working people party on socialist program.
We of the SPN strongly hold that
there are enough resources to adequately fund not only LASU but also the public
education at all levels. The problem is the anti-poor policies of the
government and self-serving interest of the political office holders who pay
themselves and hangers-on jumbo salaries and allowances at the expense of the
poor in the state.
We call on the staff unions
(ASUU, SSANU, NASU, etc) and students’ union of LASU to organise a joint
platform of actions against the outrageous fees which have already adversely
affected the annual enrolment of students and threatened the jobs of staffs.
The total population of LASU students at present is about 13,000 which is a
sharp drop from over 20,000 which it used to be before the new fees regime was
introduced in 2011. Indeed, given the relative low number of students that
applies to the university or picks up the offer of admission in the last two
sessions as a result of the high fees the figure will further plunge by the
time those currently in 300 and 400 levels graduate. This will give the
government which is already talking of restructuring the excuse of scrapping of
some academic program and departments and sacking education workers, both
teaching and non-teaching. We therefore call on labour and pro-masses
organizations to show interest in development in LASU by initiating sustained
mass campaign and activities to fight for cancellation of the current regime of
fees. This must go with the demand for
adequate funding of the university by the government side by side with the
enthronement of democratic control of resources by the committee of elected
representatives of education workers and students who are subject to recall by
their electors in order to ensure judicious allocation and spending.
Segun
Sango Chinedu
Bosah
National
Chairperson National Secretary
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