The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ERC

  • OAU students protest suspension

    MEMBERS of Education Rights Campaign (ERC) of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) have staged a demonstration to protest the suspension of some students of the management of the institution.

    Addressing a press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Chapel in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, the National Coordinator, Comrade Hassan Taiwo, who was flanked by other union activist, alleged the victimisation of students by OAU management and the Polytechnic, Ibadan respectively.

    Taiwo disclosed that eight students of OAU were recently placed on an indefinite suspension for their roles during a peaceful protest against the astronomical hike of school fees by the management.

    Six student activists, five of which are ERC members, Taiwo said, have been on suspension for close to one academic session. They are Olubanji Oluwole, Adabale Olamide, Adewumagun Johnson, Ibirogba Samuel and Sanyaolu Olajuwon.

    The student leader also alleged that the school management connived with the Osun State Police Command to charge to the affected students to court for the alleged abduction of one Habeeb Olayinka, who was the chairman of the electoral commission which organised the elections into the student union.

    Taiwo said: “The allegation of the abduction is untrue, contrived and trumped-up. The election to the students union held as planned and was conducted by the same Habeeb Olayinka.”

    Speaking on the steps taken by the ERC to seek redress on the alleged victimisation, Taiwo said the case was already in court.

    He called on institution’s stakeholders to call the Vice-Chancellor of OAU, Prof. Bamitale Omole, and the Rector of The Polytechnic Ibadan, Prof. Fawole to order.

  • Poly students protest ASUP strike in Lagos

    Poly students protest ASUP strike in Lagos

    Polytechnic students in Lagos State took to the streets yesterday to protest the on-going strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP). The strike is in its ninth month.

    They disrupted traffic flow along the ever-busy Ikorodu Road, causing a gridlock that extended as far as Yaba on the Lagos Mainland.

    The students, under the aegis of Concerned Students Against Education Commercialisation (CASATEC), began the protest by 9am at the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH).

    They displayed placards with various inscriptions like: “We are tired of staying at home”, “We want to go back to classroom”, “Spend money on education, not on confab”, “The idle mind is the devil’s workshop”, “Education is a right not privilege”, and “We are tired of watching Africa Magic”.

    Hassan Taiwo Soweto, National Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign (ERC), who led the students in the protest, said the strike had affected them negatively.

    “We are out in the streets to show our displeasure at the ASUP strike and for the government to meet our demands; we are tired of staying at home and also most of the students are now engaging in immoral acts,” he said.

    Another ERC member, Adeeko Kehinde, said: ‘’Government should meet ASUP’s demands instead of spending millions of naira on National Confab. Also B.Sc certificate should equate HND because apart from spending more years in school than the university students, our experience, if not more, will be equal to theirs.”

    Deputy Coordinator, ERC, Lateef Adams, said the aim of the protest was to appeal to the Federal Government to implement the agreement it signed with ASUP, adding that failure to implement the agreements would lead to the continuation of the protest.”

    “As responsible students, we cannot stay at home and watch the strike continue. This is the first phase of the protest; it will continue next week if the government refuses to implement the agreement before next week,” he said.

    Also the coordinator of ERC, YABATECH branch, Lateef Ibrahim called for unity and collaboration among the students to continue with the protest despite criticisms from some quarters.

    When the students got to the top of the bridge at Maryland, they played music, danced and stood there for sometime, while vehicle users were forced to watch their antics until they dispersed after about an hour. They hijacked five empty BRT buses which conveyed them back to YABATECH.

    Some pedestrians and policemen praised the students for their courage and hoped that the government would listen to them and act on the situation.

    Mr Joshua Ayokunmi, Speaker, Student Union Government, YABATECH, urged government to end the strike to save the future of youths studying in polytechnics.

    Ayokunmi said the protest was to draw government’s attention to the yearnings of the students who were being affected by the strike.

    “We are protesting to show our frustration and we do not support the strike. We are not happy with the government because the strike is being prolonged unnecessarily. We want the government to meet the demands of our lecturers so that we can go back to school. We are pleading,” he said.

     

  • Unions join LASU students’ protest against fee hike

    Unions join LASU students’ protest against fee hike

    Business activities were halted yesterday in Alausa, the seat of power in Lagos State, as the Joint Action Front (JAF) and Education Rights Campaign (ERC) joined the protest by the Lagos State University (LASU) students against hike in tuition fee and the partial resumption of students.

    The protest started at about 7:20am at the Textile Garment House with hundreds of LASU students marching and singing war songs on the Agindigbi road via Awolowo road.

    They stormed the House of Assembly to express their grievances over what they called “outrageous school fees”.

    Addressing protesters, the National Coordinator of ERC, Comrade Hassan Soweto, said: “We earnestly urge honourable members of the Assembly to reverse the fees at LASU because the fee hike was the cause of protests by LASUITES on January 23 and 24, as well as the inability of about 1,292 students to register”.

    Soweto said the cause of the protests should be addressed once and for all, adding that the fee hike is “anti-poor” and unaffordable by the majority, including civil servants.

    He said: “This regime of fees in the only public university in the state is unaffordable for the majority. It contradicts the vision of LASU founding fathers and is calculated to price education out of the reach of the children of the working class.

    “We urge members of the House to prevail on the governor to reduce the fees and allow LASU students to resume on February 24 as announced by the school’s management for final year students.”

    JAF Secretary Comrade Abiodun Aremu said: “We demand immediate reversal of the hiked fees at LASU by the management. We have argued severally that the outrageous fee hike is the cause of crisis in LASU and its reversal, adequate funding and the democratic management of LASU are the only solutions.

    “The majority of Lagosians, except the few who benefit from the government, are opposed to the continuous charging of N193,750 and N348,750 as fees in LASU.”

    He said JAF members would be at LASU gate on the resumption day and they would disregard law enforcement officers the school management might invite to harass students.

    Deputy Speaker Musibau Kolawole Taiwo said the fees were increased to provide adequate facilities.

    He said: “Some courses were disaccredited in LASU by the National Universities Commission (NUC) during its visit to the school. I was part of the lawmakers that went to the commission’s office in Abuja and we were told that they were coming to disaccredit more courses. That was why we supported the state government on the need to increase fees to help the school.”

     

  • Group seeks end to ASUP, COEASU strikes

    The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has called on the Federal Government to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) so that students can resume.

    The group said the strikes have shown the failure of the government to resolve the lingering problems in education sector.

    In a statement, its National Coordinator and National Secretary, Hassan Taiwo Soweto and Michael Ogundele, the group said the demands of ASUP and COEASU are to improve the education sub-sector, noting that it has suffered neglect by the government.

    “We note that the Federal Government has been largely indifferent to the agitations of ASUP over the past few months which have contributed to the prolongation of the strike. It is not coincidental that same indifferent and disdainful attitude is being applied by the Federal Government to the COEASU strike which started much later.

    “President Goodluck Jonathan’s anti-poor capitalist government has nothing but contempt for public education, most especially the polytechnic and colleges of education. The ERC believes that further expectation that this government will do the right thing simply through dialogue is a waste of time.

    “We, therefore, challenge ASUP and COEASU to name a day for nationwide mass protests to compel the government to meet their demands,” the statement said.

    ERC said it is confident that if ASUP and COEASU jointly name a day for protests and embark on serious mobilisation towards it, the response from Polytechnics and Colleges of Education lecturers, home-weary students and concerned members of the public would be solid, noting that if such a step is taken, the ERC will lend its support.

    The  strike is in its fourth week.

    The union embarked on strike to stop what they termed the imposition of the Integrated Personnel & Payroll Information System (IPPIS) on colleges of education.

     

  • ASUU: ERC welcomes NUT’s, NUPENG ’s solidarity strike threat

    The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has said it welcomes the decision of three trade unions – the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) – to embark on solidarity strike to compel the Federal Government to honour agreements signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    Its National Coordinator, Mr. Hassan Soweto said this in a statement. He added that the three unions should take this beyond the realm of threats and immediately name a day on which the solidarity strike would begin.

    He said the unions should begin active mobilisation of their rank and file, students who are frustrated at home and other concerned citizens to come out en-masse for mass protests and demonstrations on this day.

    He said:”We commend the three unions for taking this decision which we believe is in the best interest of the education sector and the nation at large. We agree that the ASUU strike has gone on for far too long and the plethora of strikes in the education sector are just too many. Slowly the entire public education sector is grinding to a halt.

    “The public polytechnics are equally closed and it will not be too long before the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) follow suit. The Colleges of Education lecturers held a seven-day warning strike. Indeed, the Academic Staff of Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) had to resume the strike they had suspended in July after three months, due to the insensitivity and insincerity of government to their demands and terms of the suspension of the last strike.”

    He said such a solidarity strike would be in the best interest of the education sector and the country at large.

    He continued: “The three unions come from key sectors of the nation’s economy. As such their decision to embark on solidarity strike if given full and practical effect could help pile pressure on the recalcitrant anti-poor Federal Government to meet demands of striking education unions so that public universities and polytechnics can be reopened for academic activities to resume.

    “This would also serve as an example for other unions and the entire labour movement to follow. We want to stress that the solidarity actions which the NUT, NUPENG and NUEE have envisioned should also cover and back the strikes of ASUP, COEASU and all other unions in the education sector that have any on-going dispute with the government over pay, conditions and education funding. This is the best way to ensure that all the outstanding disputes in the education sector are resolved and all public universities, polytechnics and colleges of educations are opened for full and undisrupted academic activities.”

    Soweto added that the ERC understands the position of Nigerians who believe that the entire sector will crumble if such a union as the NUT goes on strike.