weekend's decision of the Academic Staff Unions of Universities (ASUU)
to go on strike, calling on the government to meet the union's demands
immediately.
A statement today by its National Coordinator, Hassan Taiwo Soweto,
said the central issue that has forced the union to embark on the new
action is the Federal Government's continued refusal to fully
implement the FGN/ASUU agreement signed in 2009.
Recalling that the ERC was involved in various actions at that time to
get the agreement signed, the campaign said it was duty bound to stand
with ASUU and university lecturers in the current struggle to get the
agreement fully implemented.
"As experience of the last three and half years have shown, it would
take far more monumental struggle than the one neededto get the
agreement signed to force the corrupt capitalist government to
implement it," the ERC statement said.
It described the action as a mass struggle to compel the government to
commit Nigeria's resources to the funding of education, provision of
adequate teaching facilities and to meet the needs of staffs in terms
of pay and working conditions.
"Ultimately not one of the demands of ASUU can be satisfactorily
implemented without a turnaround in government's lackaidaisical,
negligent and anti-poor attitude to education. Needless to say, only a
government that is truly committed to using Nigeria's resources to
fund education can fully and satisfactorily guarantee the pay and
working conditions of staff," ERC said.
It stressed that this is why in the current strike and subsequent
ones, the demands for improvement in education funding, democratic
management of schools and provision of free education at all levels
have to be fully placed on the front burner,not as secondary issues
but as demands ASUU would be willingto continue to fight for even if
the agreement presently in contention is implemented.
Towards that end, it encouraged ASUU to begin the mobilisation of its
members, students, youth and the public for public mass actions,
stating that no reasonable person can blame University lecturers for
embarking on strike again. Since 2009, it pointed out, the Union has
embarked on a series of actions, including dialogues and occasional
strikes, none of which have succeeded in convincing the government to
meet itsdemands.
ERC described as "very unfortunate" the apathy on the part of the
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
"This gives the wrong impression that perhaps students have
nogrievances or demands to put on the table. Meanwhile students bear
the brunt of government anti-poor policies of education underfunding
and commercialisation. Nearly 10 students have been killed by the
police this year alone during protests on campuses."
It called on the students to organise themselves and put forward their
grievances and demands on such issues as fee hikes, underfunding,
inadequate facilities, poor municipal services and victimisation. "We
call on NANS to immediately declare and begin to mobilise for a
one-day nationwide lecture boycott and mass protest as a way to put
forward students' demands and also to give active solidarity support
to the strike actions of ASUU, ASUP and SSANIP," the statement said.
It noted that ASUU, ASUP and SSANIP are fighting for generally the
same thing - the welfare of their members and theadequate funding of
education.
"The fact that the three unions are on strike at the same time and
arguing the same issues shows there is basis for unity. The ERC
believes their strikes will be more powerful and highly effective if
linked together as a jointly coordinated strike movement to fight for
improvement in public education."
In order to accomplish that, ERC called on ASUU, ASUP, SSANIP and NANS
to link up their struggles by mobilising for joint rallies, protest
and mass demonstrations.
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