ASUU strike and crisis in Nigeria's educational system, By Hassan Taiwo Soweto

When an idea is essentially faulty, it revels in contradictions. In one instance, Segun Adeniyi wants public universities to be commercialized. Then when he remembered he was more likely to have become a palm wine tapper in his village instead of the ace journalist and presidential spokesperson he eventually became if he had not had the benefit of free and subsidised public education while growing up, he suddenly became an advocate of not shutting university education against indigent students. To give off the impression that he knows what he is saying, he goes off to list a number of policies that could be carried out to ensure that indigent students are not shut out in a commercialised and privatised educational system. This includes: “loans scheme, work-study programmes, scholarship schemes, bursaries, grants”. Unfortunately, the only idea worthy of examination in all he has listed is the loan scheme as every other educational support schemes like bursaries, scholarships etc. already exist and have failed miserably to ensure equitable access to University education by all.
Now let us briefly examine this so-called loan scheme in order to have an understanding of how it works and if it works. A number of countries like Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, etc all have student loans schemes. For instance in the United States, “there are two types of student loans: federal loans sponsored by the federal government and private student loans, which broadly includes state-affiliated non-profits and institutional loans provided by schools. The overwhelming majority of student loans are federal loans. Federal loans can be “subsidized” or “unsubsidized.” Interest does not accrue on subsidized loans while the students are in school. Student loans may be offered as part of a total financial aid package that may also include grants, scholarships, and/or work study opportunities. Whereas interest for most business investments is tax deductible, student loan interest is generally not deductible. Critics contend that tax disadvantages to investments in education contribute to a shortage of educated labor, inefficiency, and slower economic growth. Prior to 2010, federal loans were also divided into direct loans (which are originated and funded by the federal government) and guaranteed loans, originated and held by private lenders but guaranteed by the government. The guaranteed lending program was eliminated in 2010 because of a widespread perception that the government guarantees boosted lending companies’ profits but did not benefit students by reducing student loan cost.”^[1]
One of the consequences of the student loan scheme in the USA for instance is the growth of for-profit Universities which charge fees that average Americans cannot afford. With the average annual tuition cost for a four-year in-state public university averaging $26,590 for the 2019–2020 academic year, many students are forced to take out student loans to bridge the gap between grants and their annual tuition costs.^[2] Another consequence is the rise in student loan debt with many paying students’ loans far into their adult life thus deepening poverty among working class and middle class families. Former President Obama did not finish paying his student loan until he became the US president. At the moment, approximately 43m Americans owe $1.6tn in federal government-backed student loans, plus there is an additional $140bn held in private student loans. Let me give an example for context. An American citizen, Liz Sampson owed $58,217 for her undergraduate degree in health services administration at D’Youville University in Buffalo, New York. She juggled four jobs and lived pay cheque to pay cheque for three years after college to pay off her loans. Despite the burden of her debt, she said she does not support student loan forgiveness. She says and I quote “It still does not solve the root cause of the problem, which is college is unaffordable”.
So what all of these mean is that the student loan scheme does not work. It makes education more expensive, turn education into a business while trapping people in debilitating debt for the profit of loan corporations. But remember we are talking about the failure of the student loan scheme in an advanced capitalist economy, how do you think it would fare in a neo-colonial capitalist economy like Nigeria which is not producing any real good-paying jobs that can support decent living? In Nigeria today, university graduates stay at home for an average of five years before finding any job and usually these are low-paying jobs with terrible condition of service. How would indebted students pay back and how long would it take them? My position is that students loan scheme will be even a far bigger disaster in Nigeria than it has been in other parts of the world. It will lead to generational indebtedness and misery for young people who will be trapped in a debt burden owed to glorified loan sharks.
Therefore, ASUU is right not to agree with the Federal Government to commercialize public Universities by increasing tuition. ASUU’s position is based on the idea that Nigeria’s wealth if judiciously managed is adequate to ensure a better life for all. I completely stand with ASUU on this. The truth is that despite the prevailing economic crisis and dwindling revenue, Nigeria is still rich enough to fund public education and basic amenities. What needs to be done is to redirect government priorities from funding the profligacy of the ruling elite into investing our collective wealth in the welfare of the people. Despite the so-called economic crisis, ministers of the Buhari government including Keyamo’s boss, Labour Minister Chris Ngige, coughed out N100 million apiece for the presidential primary of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). Where did they get this money? There is money to fund education and other basic needs. The only problem is capitalism – a socio economic system based on the brutal exploitation of the working class for the benefit of the rich. That is why an essential part of our struggle is not only to fight against this or that anti-people policies, for which we can win some concessions, but to also advance the struggle up to the point of the working class taking political power and establishing a Socialist Nigeria under which Nigeria’s economy will be nationalized under public democratic control and management and the needs of the vast majority not the greed of a few will be the basis of governance and economy.
So in essence I call on Nigerian students, workers, and all right-thinking people to continue to support ASUU’s struggle and the overall struggle for adequate funding and democratic management of quality public education at all levels. I would also like to use this occasion to call on the Nigeria Labour Congress to make good its threat to escalate its intervention to a general strike should the irresponsible Buhari government refuse to meet the demands of ASUU after the July 26 and 27 protests of the NLC. Therefore, I reiterate the call of the ERC and Joint Action Front (JAF) on both the NLC and TUC to declare a 48-hour general strike and mass protest as the next stage in the struggle in order to force the hand of the government and get universities reopened.

I also urge ASUU to consider organizing more public mass activities to build support. This should include public townhalls, leafletting and other creative and effective means to get its message out and counter the false propaganda of the Federal Government. ASUU must recognise that without building critical mass support from Nigerian students, parents, and the mass of the working people, it would be difficult for an indefinite strike by a union to succeed in defeating the Federal Government which has powers of coercion and suppression. Therefore the union’s activities and strategy must be tailored towards building this mass support while ensuring that its tactics correlate appropriately to the balance of force at all times.
After all is said and done, the struggle to save public education is not a sprint but a marathon. It is intrinsically linked with the struggle to defeat neo-colonial capitalism which is the major reason Nigeria’s corrupt ruling elite are so useless and irresponsible. No other person than late Chief Gani Fawehinmi recognized this when he formed the National Conscience Party (NCP) as an independent political party of the working class and poor masses. It should be recalled that the NCP “came into being as a result of the monumental act of betrayal exhibited by all the main stream capitalist politicians including its so-called progressive fraction which later metamorphosed into AD, particularly in the wake of the annulment of the 12 June, 1993 presidential election won by Chief MKO Abiola. The unprincipled collaboration of all layers of the main capitalist politicians in the said annulment and their subsequent peaceful acquiesce to continuation of military rule made most radical sections of the struggling masses and youths to embrace the idea of creating a new pro-masses party as articulated by Chief Gani Fawehinmi. While all layers of the capitalist politicians chose to obey the dictate of the then military junta’s ban on political parties and activities, the pioneer NCP members defied all threats to their lives to launch NCP on 1 October, 1994. And for this courageous act, many of its founding members in many states, including Gani, its pioneer chairman suffered arrests, physical assaults, prolonged detentions under the military junta^[3]”.

In 2003, the NCP with a ten care programme which promised the “abolition of poverty” participated in the general elections. “Looking back and despite and in spite of time and financial constraints, the NCP ran a glorious campaign and equally got promising results where it was organized and active. Despite the massive frauds and manipulations, which characterized the 2003 general elections, the party’s presidential candidate in the person of Gani came fifth while in Lagos State, the party’s governorship candidate came third. In fact, many change-seekers used to urge NCP activists to persevere, as they believed the party was a party of the future”^[4]. Mr. Kunle Sanyaolu, a Senior Editorial staffer of The Guardian and political analyst, in The Guardian publication of July 23, 2006, page 55, wrote an article titled “Political Parties As Hope 2007”. The write-up which was meant to be a political appraisal of the current state of the parties in general has this to say on NCP: “In the prelude to the 2003 election, the party that impressed me most is the National Conscience Party (NCP). It not only presented a manifesto that addressed the crux of the country’s current problems, the party attached to its programme a measurable plan of action verifiable by interested persons”^[5]
Unfortunately, all these opportunities were eventually lost. However, as we mark the 13^th anniversary of Chief Gani Fawehinmi’s death today, I urge us to make a renewed commitment to embark on a new attempt to form and build a mass workers and poor people’s political party armed with Socialist programmes to sweep away the capitalist gangsters, take political power and establish a revolutionary government of workers and poor people to salvage Nigeria. This is the only way to complete Chief Gani Fawehinmi’s immortal work. There is an urgency in the situation as every socio-economic indices point to the fact that the crisis in Nigeria has matured to a boiling point and an implosion impends. If the working people are able to take power in Nigeria, there is no doubt that this will act as a spring-board for the liberation of Cameroon, Niger, Benin, and the entire Africa as a first step in the struggle of the working class to take their destinies into their own hands.
I have no doubt that we can do this if we set our mind to it.
Thank you very much for listening
Amandhla!
Hassan Taiwo Soweto is the National Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign (ERC).
This is the text of remarks made at the 13^th memorial anniversary for Chief Gani Fawehinmi in Lagos.
Notes:
^[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_loan
^[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_loan
^[3] http://www.socialistnigeria.org/1342/2008/04/24/gani-70-celebrating-an-inimitable-fighter-for-the-masses/?doing_wp_cron=1662369673.1360490322113037109375

^[4] http://www.socialistnigeria.org/1342/2008/04/24/gani-70-celebrating-an-inimitable-fighter-for-the-masses/?doing_wp_cron=1662369673.1360490322113037109375

^[5] http://www.socialistnigeria.org/1342/2008/04/24/gani-70-celebrating-an-inimitable-fighter-for-the-masses/?doing_wp_cron=1662369673.1360490322113037109375

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