Movement For Socialist Alternative Backs Ongoing ASUP Strike, Others

– Advises For A Day For Mass Action To Push For Their Demands

From ADEOLA ABIOLA, Lagos

The Movement for A Socialist Alternative (MSA) fully supports the ongoing indefinite strike action of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).

It says that the ongoing strike actions once again shows the failure of the federal and state governments to resolve the perennial problems in the education sector.

The statement signed by their spokesman, Dagga Tolar reads:

We call on the Federal Government to immediately meet ASUP demands so that students can resume academic activities, which the Covid-19 pandemic already elongated and now again on hold due to an avoidable strike. We condemn the nonchalant attitude of the government towards the polytechnic teachers. It was the same anti-education and nonchalant attitude that led to the avoidable strike of ASUU that lasted for eight months and was the longest in the history of the university system.

The demands of ASUP, like other unions in the education sector that have been at loggerheads with the government, are for the revitalisation of Nigeria’s polytechnics.

Ordinarily, it should not take a strike to draw the attention of a responsible government to the general state of rot in Nigeria’s education system. But Nigeria, as a neo-colonial capitalist country, has a limited role for education in the enrichment of its few billionaires, who depend largely on multinationals, oil, government’s protection and contracts for their wealth. Such a predatory state of affairs is responsible for the underdevelopment, the deep misery of the masses, including prevalent insecurity and violent crimes.

We, therefore, understand the points education workers are making for the revitalisation of tertiary institutions to boost the productivity of the economy. We join them in calling on the government to end insecurity and poverty by funding a quality education that is free and accessible.

According to the National President of ASUP, Mr Anderson Ezeibe, the non-implementation of the NEEDS Assessment report of 2014 in the polytechnics, as well as the non-release of any revitalization fund to the sector, despite assurances since 2017, are the prominent reasons behind the ongoing strike. Also, the union is demanding the payment of salary arrears owed its members in both federal and state-owned polytechnics. We extend our solidarity to ASUP in this struggle and give voice to its legitimate demands for the progress of Nigeria’s education and development.

We note that the Federal Government has been largely indifferent to the agitations of ASUP over the past few months, which has contributed to the commencement of the strike on the 6th of April, 2021.

It is not coincidental that the same nonchalant attitude was applied to other striking unions, like the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), and the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), which commenced strike actions earlier.

We call on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to provide a platform of joint action for all striking workers, whose demands are similar after all.

We also re-emphasise our call on the leadership of the NLC to declare and mobilise for a 48-hours warning general strike to fight for non-payment of minimum wage, salary arrears, including the backdoor taxes imposed on working people in the name of increases in the prices of fuel and electricity.

The MSA believes that any further expectation that this government will do the right thing through dialogue alone is a waste of time. We, therefore, challenge ASUP and other unions that are on strike to name a day for nationwide mass protests to compel the government to meet their demands. The MSA is confident that if ASUP names a day of protests, and embarks on serious mobilisation towards it, the response from home-weary students and concerned members of the public would be well assured.

The MSA believes that if the demands of the ASUP are met, it will lead to improvement in the education sector. However, it will require the democratic running of the entire education sector, as well as ending the system of capitalism and its replacement by a democratic socialist system for a real and complete turnaround to be witnessed in the education sector, including the polytechnic and education sub-sectors