Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on Nigerians as well as organised labour, civil society organisations and professional bodies to champion the cause of wrestling powers from the current political class in the forthcoming 2019 general elections.
Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President who gave the charge at a press briefing held in Abuja, specifically called for inauguration of a Popular Democratic Movement for Socialism Development in Nigeria, with the view to end the ruling class deception.
The University don, who stressed the need for Nigerians to get off the shackles of the political parties and organisations formed by the same class that has failed since 1960, argued that the “Nigeria’s ruling class needs ethnic and religious crises in order to secure and sustain political power. ASUU will never support any ruling class wing either to acquire or to sustain power.”
“The time has come for us Nigerians to take our fate into our own hands. Nigeria will not be saved by any coalition of wings of the ruling class. The people of Nigeria must find a new path for liberating our country. This is a historical task that must be accomplished. Enough of ruling class deception. It is time for all cheated, oppressed and suppressed people in Nigeria to decide to change their lives, end the rule of exploiters and ethnic coalitions of the ruling class.
“The workers, farmers (peasants), the intellectuals, and all the oppressed in Nigeria need to win control over their resources to reinvigorate the political, economic, education, health and all other keys to the well-being of Nigerians wherever they live in our country. They must work together to end the rule of official robbers, exploiters of the working class and the peasants, and create a country where solidarity among the Nigerian people will reign. The ideology of the National Movement should be articulated by the working class movement.
“That ideology will be based on rejection of neo-liberal economic and political ideology, and commitment to Popular Democratic Movement for Socialism Development in Nigeria.
“The challenge belongs to the Labour movement in Nigeria – the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress, the Civil Society Organisations which share the political principles of the working class movement, and professional organisations such as the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the Peasant and Farmers’ Associations, the Students’ Organisations, Women’s Associations, among others,” Ogunyemi urged.
In response to the lingering of the herdsmen/farmers crisis which has led to the death of hundreds of innocent citizens across the country, Ogunyemi urged Federal Government, to clear all doubts and help the country, should set up a truly national panel made up of citizens of Nigeria who have an impeccable record of defence of Chapter II – Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy – and Chapter V – Fundamental Human Rights provisions of the Constitution (1999, as amended). The panel will investigate the crisis referred to as the “Herdsmen – farmers Conflict”, present a report to the country, and this will be a basis of addressing the crisis.”
While reflecting on the state of Nigeria’s education, Ogunyemi who decried the declining funding from 11.79 per cent as at 2005, decried the “scandalously low point of less than 7 per cent in the 2018 budget, for a government that promised 15 per cent in its Party Manifesto.”
While decrying the lackadascical attitude of the present administration towards education And like many other promises, the highly publicised declaration of a “State of Emergency in the Education Sector” in April 2018 has since been thrown into the waste-bin. State Governors, across the party divides, have equally assumed the status of pariah – lord and master over those who elected them to serve. With as many as 17 States failing to provide the matching grants for accessing the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) funds to support “Free, Universal and Compulsory” basic education in the country, it is little surprise that most public primary and secondary schools are in despicable and deplorable states from which no one should expect a solid foundation for Nigeria’s educational development.
