– Yusuf Babs

Implementation of Neo-liberal policies of deregulation and privatisation by the Nigerian ruling elites translates to nothing else than the commercialisation of education in Nigeria with all the negative consequences for workers and students being their dehumanization, victimization, promotion delay, termination of appointment, dismissal  of ASSU members and increasing number of students dropping out school across all levels of education in Nigeria.

Consequently, various staff union and students union have been weakened and silenced as  union leaders and  members across institutions of higher learning, have been  dismissed and rusticated respectively; in Kogi State University, 120 lecturers was dismissed by the management, in Lagos State University, five Leadership of Academic Staff Union of University  were also dismissed for the past seven years for demanding improve welfare and exercising their democratic rights as union members. The situation is not any different in Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki where the school management has refused to implement the court judgment and reinstate sacked lecturers. Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Igbariam are also listed as places where the university management continues to victimise ASUU members.

Virtually all democratic rights of the union, to organize and mobilize members to resist  and reject anti-workers and anti-student attacks, have ended in more brutal attacks on members,  which have  dampened the morale of most members to be active members of their union.

DISMISSAL OF ASUU LEADERSHIP IN LASU

The management of LASU dismissed five leadership members of ASUU ; the  union Chairman, Dr. Akinloye Isaac Oyewumi; vice chairman, Dr. Adebowale Adeyemi-Suenu; secretary, Dr. Anthony Dansu; assistant secretary, Dr. Adeolu Oluwaseyi Oyekan and treasurer, Dr. Oluwakemi Aboderin-Shonibare for  frivolous and unfounded charges, during the tenure of the former Vice Chancellor  Prof. Olarenwaju Fagbohun, through the governing council led by Prof. Adebayo  Ninalowo. Even after an agreement in court by both parties for an out of court peaceful settlement was agreed upon and case withdrawn by ASUU from the court, the management of LASU has not done the needful.

Relatedly,  the Vice Chancellor Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, revisited and investigated the issue, through the Committee on Grievances, and ordered the reinstatement of the five ASSU officers, who where dismissed, but the Lagos state government instructed the management of LASU to wait for the white paper which the governor of Lagos State, has refused to release till date.

ASUU NATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY CTION AND RALLIES

The  national leadership of the union was therefore left with no other option than to declare a  national  day of  solidarity for all victimized ASUU members to demand the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of all ASUU members that have been dismissed across Nigeria for September 10, 2024. In LASU, the solidarity day of action by ASUU attracted the support of the Joint Action Front, and other pro-Labour Civil Society Organizations like the MSA, DSM and ERC and also offered union members the opportunity, to report, evaluate and made concrete resolutions that awaken the spirit of members to once again take up the struggle and agitation against victimization and unjust dismissal of ASSU members.

Press conference and rally to the Senate building of LASU further enlighten the university community on the need to support the struggle for the reinstatement of the ASSU leadership in LASU, where the treasurer of the union, Comrade …. led solidarity songs and reemphasize the demands  of the union; that the Lagos State Government should immediately release the report of  the white paper of its visitation to LASU,  to avoid others actions that the union intend to  carry out if their members are not reinstated immediately.

Solidarity Network for Workers Rights (SNWR) commends the initiative of the ASSU  leadership, to protect its members. It is imperative to note that crises facing the union is a product of capitalist and imperialist policies dictated by IMF and World Bank, which acts to cut off state funding for education, imposing indiscriminate and affordable school fees, outrightly making education a priviledge for the exclusively rich few.

Other university staff unions must stand hands akimbo, there will be need to organise joint solidarity actions of all the unions in the university, as essentially needed to help rejuvenate and reawaken the organization and mobilization of all members to organize  Congress, become and immediate action, aside other actions to boost the morale and confident of union members to freely identify with the union, irrespective of ethnic background and religious affiliation.

The Nigeria Labor Congress and Trade Union Congress must also not leave ASUU and universities staff unions alone to take on their issues. Education is essentially needed for the overall development of the economy and country, it must therefore be willing to take action on behalf of students and workers in this sector and explore the possibility of calling for a 24 hours Day of Action to insist on the adequate funding for education, the democratic right for independent unionism and immediate recall for all victimised and sacked staffs of all higher institutions of learning in the country.

Added to this is the need for the working class to take up the task reorganising and transforming Nigeria on the minimum programme of Socialist Alternative manifesto that will prioritize free and qualitative education, health care, massive job creation and rural development as a step towards the socialist transformation of the Nigerian society. It follows therefore that the trade unions must take up the task of building an independent political party of the working class that will function to bring about a Workers’ and Farmers’ government. While not dismissing the Labour party and the effort to reclaim it by the political commission of the NLC, the point must be made that without thousands of workers, even millions mobilised to become active inside of it, the bourgeois politicians cannot on the basis of come to power, even act to implement a social democratic programme as was done by the Action Group and the Unity Party of Nigeria in the first and second republic in Nigeria. Anything short of a socialist Alternative programme will make the labour party a vehicle for the continued domination of the bourgeois order and their capitalist anti-workers policies over the economy guaranteeing the continuous pauperisation of the working masses.

ASUU and indeed the trade unions should also extend their solidarity to the  #Endbadgovernance movement, to demand the right to peacefully organise, the right to protest as a democratic right and that those detained be released immediately, those falsely charged for treason and on trial be dropped and set free, since this was only aimed at silencing the voice of dissents. The crises confronting ASSU is a reflection of the general crises in Nigeria, it is only a fundamental change anchored  on the principle of socialism as an alternative, by building a revolutionary party, cadres and leadership, that will consistently advance the ideas and principle of  socialism across Nigeria and internationally to end  poverty, misery and hunger.