ASUU Must Not Only Sit At Home But Also Hold Mass Protests, Says Student Group

The Education Rights Campaign has called on the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to engage in mass actions to press further its demand on the Nigerian Government for better funding of the education sector.

Lagos Coordinator of ERC, Nurudeen Omomeewa, maintained that the federal government team led by Wale Babalakin would not agree to the deal signed by ASUU and the government until Nigerian students, civil societies, NGOs, parents and ASUU compel the government to do so through mass protests.

ASUU had announced its decision to embark on a strike in November 2018 at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in Ondo State.

Speaking on the strike action embarked upon by the academic staff organisation, he said: “The ASUU leadership must map out public activities, mass meetings, rallies and protests that are capable of attracting Nigerian students, civil societies and parents to the struggle on the need to save public university education from collapse.”

He also added that for there to be permanent solution to the funding of education in the country, government must create an economy that requires the need for the highly-skilled manpower produced in public universities.

He, however, noted that this would be impossible under capitalism and called on organised labour union to get involved in politics.

“This is impossible under capitalism, a socio-economic system that is fundamentally inequitable and that promotes wealth at one end and mass poverty at the other. For this to happen, we need a mass workers party built by the trade unions, mass organisations of the working people and socialists, to lead the revolutionary uprising of the working masses to topple capitalism,” he said.

ERC urged ASUU to play the leading role in “provoking a discussion within the ranks of the labour movement, civil society and Socialists for the formation of such a mass workers party and a programme to fight for political power”.

Source: Saharareporters