ERC CONDOLES WITH NSUK STUDENTS AND BEREAVED FAMILIES OVER TRAGIC BUT AVOIDABLE DEATHS OF 2 STUDENTS

WE HOLD GOVERNMENT AND THE UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS DEATH

STUDENTS AND WORKERS MUST ORGANIZE AGAINST ALL ANTI-MASSES POLICIES!

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) mourns the tragic death of two students of Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK) during a stampede where the state government was distributing grains to students as palliatives. Aside these two students, at least 22 others were also injured. We consider it pathetic that two innocent lives were lost while in search of what to eat as a result of the worsening economic hardship triggered by the anti-poor policies of Bola Tinubu government.

We recall similar sad incidents occurred in Lagos at Customs office and in Bauchi, which recorded 7 and 8 fatalities respectively. These tragedies which underscore the scale of the ongoing cost of living crisis could have been avoided, but only by a government with pro-masses economic programme, not neo-liberal program which is a dictate of the IMF and World Bank. Nonetheless, we hold that in a university community which is first an intellectual environment, a level of sanity and organized approach is expected. We consider it shocking that the state government and the university management can reduce a university environment into a market square and students made to jostle for few grains of rice.

The Nigerian thieving ruling class, responsible for the drastic decline in the economy and mass impoverishment, continues to add insult to the injury of Nigerian masses by giving out few bags of grains to be shared by multitude in the name of palliatives. To be clear, we are not opposed to any means that can give relief to students suffering hardship, but as far as we are concerned, the government and the university authorities of NSUK are not in anyway sincere with the so-called palliative.

There are many ways the government and the school authorities could have offered relief to students from the terrible economic reality without endangering their lives. For instance, students could have been asked to link their bank account details with their portal account and money can be directly sent to them, the State government and school authorities could have made a noticeable reduction in the fees of students or even make it free, among many other means. Most importantly, the neo-liberal and anti-poor capitalist policies of subsidy removal and fuel price hike that detonated the cost-of-living crisis could have been reversed and this would have immediately brought relief to struggling students.

Clearly, the state government and school authorities are only interested in tokenism and exhibitionism, doing something with the aim of doing nothing. We ask, how could few grains of rice have resolved the economic crisis students are battling? The answer is clear! The so-called palliative cannot resolve anything.

For us in the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) we hold the state government and university management responsible for the death of two students and the injury sustained by many. Just as we asserted, this is a tragic loss that is avoidable. We call of students and workers to begin to campaign for justice for these innocent students including adequate compensation payments to their families. Students and workers must begin to organize mass actions in pushing their demands.

In the immediate, we propose a candle light procession to honour the dead and use the opportunity to kick-start a campaign for justice. Also importantly, we must link this campaign to the demand for immediate reversal of all anti-poor capitalist policies by Tinubu government which is the fundamental reason for the current high inflation and cost of living crisis.  Above all, the current economic hardship shows that capitalism, no matter how it is reformed, does not work. We need a consistent mass struggle and a mass worker party with Socialist alternative to begin to fight to end capitalism and enthrone a Socialist Nigeria.

Hassan Taiwo Soweto,

National Coordinator.

Adaramoye Michael Lenin,

National mobilization officer.

Email: [email protected]