Thursday, September 05, 2013

Nigerian Students Protest Higher Education Policy

Students protest ASUU strike

Posted by: Sulaiman Salawudeen
The Nation, Nigeria

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) yesterday protested the two-month old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The students, led by the Director of Action and Mobilisation, Comrade Sunday Asefon, marched on the streets of Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, carrying placards.

They chanted songs decrying the stance of the Federal Government, noting that ASUU was right to insist that the government should fulfil the agreement reached with the union in 2009.

The students threatened to ensure that academic activities were also stalled in the private universities.

According to them, the incessant strikes by ASUU had aided what they described as “a continuous recession in the standard of education since Dr. Goodluck Jonathan emerged as the president.”

Comrade Asefon said between 2000 and 2011, Federal Government earned almost N48.48 trillion from the sale of crude oil alone, as opposed to the N3.10 trillion, which accrued between 1979 and 1999.

The student leader went on: “The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in the 2012 financial year made N5.12 trillion as the revenue generated from tax paid by the masses.

“With this tremendous upswing in the revenue at the disposal of the government, one would have expected such to translate to a commensurate improvement in the quality of public education and other social services.”

Asefon said given the resources at its disposal, the Federal Government should budget a sizeable sum for the development of education as recommended by the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), adding that countries, such as Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya with smaller GDP have done so.

Part of their demands were that state universities, such as the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Lagos State University (LASU), Osun State University, Olabisi Onabanjo University and others should charge half their current school fees.

Another student leader from EKSU, Comrade Steven Adara, said those in government and other affluent Nigerians were not helping matters “as they are in the habit of sending their children to private schools, locally and overseas.”

Said he: “We will mobilise ourselves and ensure that we disrupt academic activities in the private universities, because it is the children of the rich that are in these schools.”

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