DSM, ERC Flag off Save Education Campaign

It was a colourful event at Awolowo Hall café of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on 8th February, 2007 when student activists gathered to kick start a campaign to save education from total collapse from the anti-poor, neo-liberal economic policy of the government of the day.

The symposium had in attendance, the General Secretary of the DSM, who also doubles as the Chairman of the Lagos State National Conscience Party (NCP), Comrade Segun Sango; and other activists including comrade Adeola Soetan, former president of the OAU students’ union (and a member of NEC of the DSM), comrade Peluola Adewale, ex-coordinator of NANS Zone ‘D’ and the president of OAU students’ union, comrade Akinola Saburi.

Many other activists including members of the radical organizations on campus while we were also privileged to host comrade Waheed Lawal, the Osun State chairman of NCP.

The rally followed a two-day lecture boycott cum protest of students called to fight for salient welfare and political demands of students; and members of DSM and ERC participated actively in the boycott/protest which gave the symposium the leverage and popularity it enjoined.

Over 200 students witnessed the rally while more than 15 students registered interest in joining the DSM and ERC. Socialist materials including the Socialist Democracy worth over N1000 were sold at the rally. The mood at the rally reflected the enthusiasm of students to take their struggle beyond the confines of their immediate environment link their struggle to that of the workers and poor masses against neo-liberal attack. This was also the import of the analyses of comrade Sango and other speakers at the symposium.

The secretary of the DSM, OAU branch, while giving his final remark enjoined all progressive students to not only join the Save Education Campaign but also the DSM and ERC in order to struggle together to defeat capitalism.

The campaign shall be consolidated through leafleting, press campaign, rallies, and symposia in schools and establishment it will also involve protest marches, petitioning, picketing and all other political of drawing the attention of the general public to the government’s onslaught on the education sector. The campaign is also aimed at building a platform for the formation of a fighting organ to defend the students interest on a national level.