LAGOS – The African Action Congress (AAC) Lagos State chapter has expressed its solidarity with workers in Lagos State who are protesting the hike in fees in Lagos State Model College from ₦35,000 to ₦100,000.
According to a statement signed by Osatohamhen Ebhohon, AAC Publicity Secretary in Lagos, the party condemned the current attack on the education rights of the people of Lagos by the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration.
The AAC referred to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights, which stated that everyone has the right to education, stressing that education should be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.
The party said: “Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
“The article simply says that education must be generally available and accessible to all. However, what Tinubu’s watchdog has done is out-priced the Nigeria working people and their teenage children out of school, when they should be making education at all levels completely free and qualitative.”
The party recalled that on May 29, 2023 President Tinubu was sworn into the office stressing that within his first 60 days, he launched a brutal attack on business, livelihood and education of Nigeria by diabolically taking away fuel, educational and electricity subsidies from the working class of Nigeria.
AAC said: “We don’t need to be reminded of the untold hardship that has followed this attack. At the same time Tinubu as president and Sanwo-Olu as governor of Lagos State, while telling Nigerians to bear the suffering, have not in any way slowed down on what it termed squandering of the nation’s and state’s resources on foreign trips, purchase of luxury items like bulletproof cars, yacht, private jet, among others.”
It added: “They lied to Nigerians that the money that was to be used for subsidies will go into funding education and social infrastructure, only to turn around and defund education and put the burden on the working people who Tinubu has thrown into extreme multidimensional poverty.
“As a working class people, it is imperative that we resist the death penalty that the Sanwo-Olu-led government wants to impose on us like his godfather Tinubu has done nationwide.
“Statistics from 2022 shows that Lagos economy is in the top 10 biggest in Africa and generates over N651 billion yearly. Coupled with the aforementioned, Lagos State gets a federal allocation of N370 billion.
“In other words, Lagos State can afford to give free and qualitative education at all levels to every child, teenager and youth in Nigeria.
“However, the Sanwo-Olu-led government allocates only 10% of its yearly budget to education, while squandering the rest on white elephant projects.
“The lie that Sanwo-Olu is spreading about wanting better welfare for students as the reason to increase the Lagos Model School fee is from the pit of capitalist hell and must be cast back into the venomous mouth from which it came.
“The African Action Congress demands that the school fee which contains the hotel fee be reversed immediately and also demand the increase of the Lagos State educational budget from 10% to 26%, which aligns well with the UNESCO recommendations.
“We also enjoin all parents and teenagers to gear up to join the coming #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria Protesting starting on October 1.
“Mass resistance is the only Language these criminals in power understand. It is time to stand up to all of them who have turned our public institutions and infrastructure to their private property.”
Read the full article here
