Sulaimon Mojeed-Sanni
Students of Yaba College of Technology, YABATECH, government-owned polytechnics in Lagos State and a non government organisation, Education Rights Campaign, on Monday, expressed their frustration over the prolonged industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP.
The students and activists ensured that commercial activities on the ever-busy Ikorodu road were grounded as vehicular movement became almost impossible.
The protesting students displayed different placards with inscriptions: We Are Tired Of Watching Africa Magic, Open Our School; Spend Money On Education Sector Not National Conference; Education Is Our Right, Not A Privileged and FG, We Are Tired Of Staying At Home, among others.
The students lamented that keeping them at home for nine months would end up making them half baked graduates.
They said the Federal Government can not justify the rationale behind spending so much on the on-going national conference while they remain at home.
While demanding an immediate opening of their institutions, the protesting students expressed disappointment over the Federal Government’s refusal to yield to the demands of the ASUP to get them back to class.
Speaker of Yaba College of Technology and General Secretary of Lagos State Tertiary Institutions Speakers’ Forum, Akinjayeju Ayokanmi, said they are collectively out to denounce the continuous action of the Federal Government for putting the national conference well above the education of the Nigerian students.
Ayokanmi told P.M. NEWS Campus Square: “We are here to tell the Federal Government that we are tired of sitting at home. We need the government to dialogue with ASUP and do the needful because if the demands of ASUP are not met, we cannot return to our classes.
“Again, we are using this platform to tell the government to ensure there is equality between HND and BSc. holders. Considering the fact that polytechnic students are more practical-oriented, it is a great disservice to put B Sc. holders ahead of us. A country like Nigeria, in need of industrial hands, needs to prioritize polytechnic graduates for the skills they have been able to acquire.”
Akinjayeju also opined that the money the government would be spending on the National Conference should have been used to meet the demands of ASUP and save the education sector.
Deputy National Coordinator of Education Rights Campaign, Lateef Adams, explained that it is sheer irresponsibility for the Federal Government not to heed to the demands of ASUP.
•Some of the protesting students block the road to express frustration over the prolonged strike
He, therefore, called on other students to come out en mass to participate in subsequent protests that would be held soon.
“If students are forced to stay at home because Federal Government fails to meet the demands of the lecturers, how would the issue of half baked graduates-which was credited to the Minister of Education-be resolved?
“If students are on campus when they are supposed to be, I don’t see any reason they would be half baked. Nigerian students have the intellect, zeal and capacity to be the best in the world but the government has continued to hamper their progress through it negligence by not funding education properly,” he said.
Another student of YABATECH, Aregbesola Feyishara, lamented that her school had been closed since last year, a situation, she claimed, has made some of her colleagues to forget their matriculation numbers.
The Coordinator of Concerned Students Against Education Commercialisation, COSATEC, Comrade Awomosu, who also joined the protest, encouraged all well meaning students and union leaders to insist that government at the Fedetral and state levels, do not commercialize education.
According to the National Publicity Secretary of ASUP, Clement Chirman, the strike would continue indefinitely if the government refuses to resolve the 13 core outstanding issues that precipitated the on-going strike.
The core issues include the non-establishment of National Polytechnic Commission, the delay in provision of policy frameworks for the elimination of HND/Degree dichotomy, re-negotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUP agreement and non-implementation of CONTISS 15 migration for the lower cadres.
Also the protesting lecturers are demanding that government should include monotechnics and colleges of technologies as beneficiaries of TET fund interventions projects among others.
