UI: ERC SUPPORTS THE ONGOING STUDENTS PROTEST AGAINST RATIONED ELECTRICITY SUPPLY AND FEE HIKE
We urge workers’ unions on campus to take immediate solidarity actions
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) University of Ibadan branch commends the mass of students of the university for embarking on a peaceful protest to demand an immediate withdrawal of an unfortunate schedule of electricity supply in the university recently released by university administration and reversal of the university current regime of fee hike. Other demands include immediate termination of the ongoing persecution of three students for their involvement in agitation against fee hike.
The ERC supports all these demands. They are laudable and achievable as long as students can remain steadfast and maintain their resilience. By the schedule of electricity supply, it so obvious that mass of the students are doomed to be in darkness for a greater part of the day. The access to electricity supply whenever it’s available has been limited to just 4 hours between 10pm and 2am in the night. The ERC condemns and rejects this kind of schedule. It will definitely hamper the academic activity and performance. As far as we are concerned, there is no justification for any schedule that is tantamount to an obvious reduction in electricity supply on campus especially at a period the university administration just imposed on students a fresh fee hike. The additional fee like utility fee of N20,000 imposed on students should rather translate into an improvement not a decline in electricity supply and other conditions of living and learning on campus.
However, this new schedule of electricity supply, has clearly shown that the new fee regime is not fundamentally designed to bring any form of improvement to both the living and learning condition of mass of students on campus. It is in the light of this we endorse the decision to link the ongoing agitation to an immediate reversal of the fee hike as well as an end to the prosecution of students who organised peaceful agitation against the fee hike itself.
This must also be linked with the agitation for proper and adequate funding of public university under a democratic management and control by a committee comprises representatives of workers and students unions on campus. Moreover, we urge members and leadership of all the workers’ unions (ASUU, SSANU, NAAT and NASU) on campus to take solidarity action to support the demands of the protesting students
Tobi Wunor
ERC UI Branch Acting Secretary
Email: [email protected]