Government and the ruling elite are to be blamed
Lagos
SPN Calls for massive public funded education and Housing as the long term solution
PRESS STATEMENT
Lagos State Chapter of
the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) commiserates with the families of the dead
and injured (school children and adults) as a result of the building that
collapsed at Ita-Faji area of Lagos Island on March 13, 2019. SPN demands
adequate compensation should be paid to the affected families and publicly
funded medical treatment for the injured.
The collapse of
the three-storey building clearly indicates the terrible chaos in the education and
housing sectors as a result of neglect and underfunding of all key sectors of
the economy. Neo-liberal capitalist policies which are hinged on profit-first
as well as cuts in social public spending are responsible for the incessant
collapse of buildings and poor state of public education. Hence, many buildings
are usually built solely for profit devoid of standard, safety and human needs.
This is similar to what is obtainable in the education sector wherein the
obvious failure of Lagos State Government like other governments has given room
for proliferation of substandard and unaffordable private schools whose primary
motive is profit.
Lagos is the fifth
biggest economy in Africa if it were to be a country and yet lacks adequate
basic infrastructure. The housing deficit in Lagos stands at 5 million housing
units while the state only boast of about 1600 public schools as against 18,000
private schools. The dominance of private education and privately built housing
is a reflection of a state whose ruling elite in the last 32 years have
constantly neglected key sectors of the economy while using public resources to
guarantee huge profit for a tiny privileged few. The lack of plan of Lagos
reflects a state of jungle with little or nothing to show for its huge
resources and potentials.
Hence, it is diversionary
for the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode to put the blame squarely on the
private developer, landlord and the school owner. The state government is an accessory to the
death of the children and by this token also guilty. We challenge Ambode to
make public the housing and education policy of the government. The same
government has demolished markets and communities and handed the space to
private developers who in turn construct for the rich while the original poor
occupants were displaced. The government and its ruling Party (APC) in Lagos
has constantly and undemocratically refused to publicly publish the detail of
its budget and projects. This is an inherently deficient government whose
preoccupation is to abandon the people while spending hundreds of billions of
Naira on vote buying as was witnessed in the last general election.
Lagos SPN strongly holds
that the way out is for a public sector led investment, which is
democratically and transparently managed, in education,
housing and other key sectors of the economy in Lagos and Nigeria as whole. This is in order meet the needs of all as against
the greed , pillage and primitive accumulation of public
resources/funds by a handful privilege few. We demand inter alia public
investigation into the collapse and punishment of all those responsible;
adequate compensation to victims' families; publicly funded mass housing and publicly owned construction companies under public democratic
control; and adequate public investment in public education to end the menace of
mushroom and substandard private education in Lagos State and in Nigeria
SIGNED
Rufus Olusesan Shoyombo
M.K
Chairman
Publicity
Secretary
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