Protest to ‘save public education’ grounds Lagos traffi

Protest to save education in Lagos state by ASUP, NANS and others

The protesters want greater funding of public education.
Scores of protesters, Tuesday, grounded vehicular traffic along the ever busy Ikorodu road in Lagos in protest against the poor state of public education in Nigeria.
The organizers of the protest said that it is a kick-off to a nationwide campaign targeted at shutting down the nation.
The protesters say they are waging war against what they described as commercialization of education in the country.
“The goal of this protest, by the time we have gone round the country is to shut down the nation until they begin to take education serious,” said Abiodun Aremu, Secretary of the Joint Action Forum.
“Governments in Nigeria today operate anti-poor policies and they are not bothered about public education.
“Funding of public education is not given the priority it deserves, because the children of those in governments and their friends are being trained in private schools in Nigeria and foreign countries with the looted funds,” Mr. Aremu added.
Among the participants in the protest are the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), National Association of Nigerian Students, Concerned Students Against Education Commercialization, and the Education Rights Campaign.
The march was planned to hold simultaneously in other Nigerian cities of Kano, Owerri, Calabar, and Abuja, according to Joint Action Front (JAF), the organizers of the protest; although that of other cities like Abuja did not hold.
In Lagos, the placards-bearing protesters marched from Yaba through Ikorodu road to Ojota chanting solidarity songs.
Though the turnout was not impressive, as the protesters numbered about 100, they succeeded in forcing to its knees the vehicular traffic on both sides of the expressway.
Michael Ogundele, student and Co-ordinator of Democratic Socialist Movement at the University of Ibadan, said that there are no better ways than mass uprisings and organizing mass protests to put political pressure on the government.
“Strike itself is an action but it’s not an action that is enough to put political pressure on these Nigerian looters, and that is why we are organizing a mass protest,” Mr. Ogundele, who is also the Oyo State Co-ordinator of the Education Rights Campaign, said.
“There is nothing practically giving you hope that soonest the strike will be suspended, that government will heed to their (ASUU) demand.
“That is why we are saying that the whole rank and file of Nigerian students should come out, we all march in a mass protest to put political pressure on these Nigerian looters to make them honour ASUU demands and properly fund education, at least 26 percent UNESCO standard,” he added.