ON LASU: AND THE FAMOUS POLITICIAN WAS TRYING TO SAVE BOTH HIS FACES “When the hypocrites look into the mirror, they see the assemblage of angels” On the 9th of march, 2014, the interim publicity secretary of the Lagos state chapter of the All Progressive Congress- Mr. Joe Igbokwe granted an interview to the Punch newspaper where he said, among other things, that the chances of slashing the outrageous fee paid by the students of the Lagos state university was almost impossible. As a citizen of the world, I have decided to analyse, in the light of truth, conscience and reality, the statements made by Mr. Joe Igbokwe by tackling it from a non-elitist, grassroots perspective. Taking my house as a reference point, I have Mr. Anifowose, Mr. Daniels, Mama Seyi and Mr. Okanlawon to the east, west, north and south respectively. Mr. Anifowose is security personnel at a senior secondary school in Badagry. He earn between N25 000 and N30 000 monthly from the Lagos state government. He has five children all of whom are into various trades as they could not even dream of furthering their studies after secondary education. Mr. Daniels is a former staff of Limca- a soft drink company at Ibereko that stopped production some years ago; since then, he has turned to commercial motorcycling as a source of income until last week when the police confiscated his motorcycle as he was crossing the Badagry expressway to buy petrol for his motorcycle. He makes an average of N2000 in a day and has four children spread across Pry 3, Pry 6, JSS 3 and SS 3. Mama Seyi is a widow who sells mat; she buys the materials at Ikoga market and after sewing, takes them to Badagry market to sell. She makes between N200 and N300 on each sales; she has two children in primary school and one in SS 2. Mr. Okanlawon is a former classmate who owns a barbing saloon; he could not further his studies immediately after our graduation from Badagry grammar school in 2005 because unlike some of us, he had no sponsor. This made him open a shop and after working from 2006 to 2010, struggled to save N93 000. He took a break for a year, paid private tutors, studied hard, obtained a JAMB form and got 213. He gained admission into the Lagos state university but could not raise the fees. Now he’s back at his shop……………….. I would use these cases as reference points. Mr. Igbokwe while defending his boss, said: ‘It is better for parents to squeeze themselves to pay a little higher fee for their children to get the real education instead of folding their arms, accepting whatever they are ready to pay and producing half-baked graduates, illiterate graduates and unemployable graduates”. It is unfortunate that such statements could be uttered by someone who heavily criticized the federal government during the January 2012 subsidy fiasco. Does Mr. Igbokwe take us for fools? How many Nigerians can afford to pay such fees for their wards? As I was preparing this, a friend sent me a copy of the tax that the office of the Land use charge had billed his dad. According to the document, the value of his house (including land and buildings) was seven million naira which made the government bill him N28 840 representing 0.39% of the worth of the property. This same individual pays the Lagos state government whenever he renews his car papers, he pays the waste managers (LAWMA), local government levies etcetera, so can Mr. Igbokwe please tell us how much further he expects him and other citizens to squeeze themselves? If a property is valued at seven million naira in a rural settlement such as Badagry, how much does Mr. Fashola tax same property at Ikoyi? As if that was not enough, in the usual tongue in the cheek way house Negroes speak for their masters, he said: Parents must know that standard and qualitative education must cost them something. The only way you can beat poverty is to get good education. That is what Governor Fashola is trying to give Lagosians.” No spokesperson, you got it all wrong. Mr. Fashola cannot give us education because it’s our right. It is people like you that the ever living Afro-beat legend- Fela Kuti was referring to in his album- Beast of no nation when he sang: “Abegi o make you hear me well well, human right na my property, so therefore, you can’t dash me my property”. The question is: since the fee was increased by almost 1000%, has the quality of teaching improved? Are the lecturers getting extra pay? Are Lasuites better off? Please roll out the statistics to convince us. When asked whether the government was running an elitist government, he said: “Are you telling me that the rebuilding of almost all the schools in Lagos is done to please the rich only”. Mr. Igbokwe is only being economical with the truth as there are over 600 secondary schools and more primary schools in Lagos, how many did the government renovate, the ones that were renovated, to what extent were they refurbished- are their schools in Lagos state today that have 35 students in a class? I had my teaching practice at Ajara junior grammar school where I taught at least 120 students in a classroom, I’m sure the school was among those that were renovated; I took a course last year where it was required of me to carry out a study in a secondary school which I did at Eletu Edibo secondary school at Abule Oja where the mathematics teacher taught almost 150 students who were both seated in the class and on the corridor. It never occurred to me until now that working in a government house now make one live in a dream world because the public schools all over Badagry where I stay and Akoka where I school are nothing but total mess; I’m certain the same applies to schools in Mushin, Ibeju-Lekki, Ikeja, Apapa, Shomolu, etcetera. Please Mr. Igbokwe, take a tour to State high school- Ibereko, Ansar Deen grammar school- Badagry, Local authority primary school- Ibereko, Ikoga grammar school-Ikoga, Oluwole primary school- Akoka, Ojota primary school and Emmanuel primary school- Ojota, Ajibola Ayedere high school- Ketu. You also mentioned that the government pays bursary to students. With all due respect sir, how much is it and how many student benefit from it? To what extent would a bursary of N30 000 or N60 000 cater for the education of a child that is expected to pay N250 000 in school? Where does this leave the law abiding non-Lagosian that pay taxes? The APC had said that the PDP isn’t leading by example, so can Mr. Joe Igbokwe and governor Fashola start by telling us where their children school and the amount they pay? If Mr. Fashola and the APC becomes our president and ruling party, will they also increase my school fee in the University of Lagos from N9 000 to N900 000 all in the name of producing full baked graduates? The removal of the fuel subsidy was premised on the fact that the money saved from it would be used to develop the economy, improve infrastructure, create jobs and improve education. According to reports, the Lagos state government got N540.48m for the first payment, wouldn’t it be too much to ask you to educate us of the impact the money had on jobs and infrastructural development? Was any fraction allocated to education? If yes, how much did LASU got? Below is a letter written by a part time student of the Lagos state university to his vice Chancellor several weeks ago: “Good Afternoon Sir, I hope this mail meets you well while i pray you use your good office to assist me. I am one for your students in the Lagos State University Part-Time program, I started this program in 2004 and was only able to write my final exams in 2011, as a result of the many breaks, industrial actions/ASUU strikes that bedevil the school, the results of this exam was pasted/published in 2012. From that publication, I had passed all the required courses for the 5 year B.Sc. program which I seek. I went on to get all the receipt of Payments to the school verified by the school bursary thus clearing myself for the award of a degree in your school. Sir as I write you now, 10 years after enrolling into your school, I am yet to be graduated or given any document that shows that I have fulfilled all the requirements for a university degree and this is not because i have not fulfilled any of the required criteria for the award of a degree. None of the several students that enlisted into the schools part-time program in the 2004/2005 set had graduated, this I believe sir is an anomaly, which we believe only you can address. I wish to appeal to your conscience Sir to lift this burden off our shoulders and issue us our certificates or even letters of notification of the completion of these programs. We, the over 500 students affected by this dilemma are looking forward to a speedy resolution of this situation. Yours Sincerely. ------------------------- For: LASU Part-time Students.” What’s your take on this sir? If your child was enrolled in The University of Benin since 2004 and after fulfilling all requirements is still denied graduation as at 2014, would you have spoke in favour of the visitor- Dr. Jonathan? I’m asking these questions sir, not because I have nothing to do but because its people like you that creates the impression that when one work for a person or an organization, he has to defend all their actions whether good or bad. This is why Femi Fani-Kayode, Muhammodu Buhari, Nasir El-rufai, and the several columnists who favors the APC still finds it difficult to speak against this inhuman decision by the Lagos state governor. Hannatu Musawa, Idowu Akinlotan and Tatalo Alamu all of whom are columnists I hold in high regard are also caught up in this barbaric and house Negro syndrome. I hope they prove me wrong because they have been the most vocal when it comes to constructively criticizing the president. Governor Fashola is known to be a very stubborn person; we saw this during the doctor’s strike, the Okada ban and the LASU issue. It is on this note that I commend the Education Rights Campaign under the leadership of Hassan Soweto (National coordinator), Kewe Ewebiyi (LASU) and Lateef Adamu (UNILAG), and the #SaveLASU group for their moral stubbornness and insistence that the fee should be reversed. I enjoin everyone to join this struggle because not only is it taking education from the reach of the masses, it is a wicked and unjust act which if allowed to stay, would ultimately set a bad precedence for other despotic rulers like Mr. Fashola to follow. To them and all other persons in this struggle, I say: “Our homeland or death, we will win” NOTE: This essay is not drafted for the PDP to use in canonizing themselves because in all fairness, if the APC is bad, then the PDP is worse. Modiu Olaguro finds “X” at The University of Lagos Email: dprophetpride@gmail unilaggong.wordpress
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 07:36:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015