By Enitan I. Olukotun
Lagos State Government appears to have lost touch with the realities in the State. It is like the trappings and paraphernalia of power have suddenly obscured the sense of reasoning of the Lagos ruling class.
The current administration has repeatedly demonstrated that its government is strictly for the elites and the rich. Many still remember with nostalgia the horrific experience of those who were labeled destitute and forcefully deported in the dead of the night by the Lagos State government to Onitsha under the guise of distorted Mega City gimmick.
Just few year s before the last year controversial deportation, the administration of Babatunde Raji Fashola clampdown on some traders who were accused of selling at unauthorized places, many lost their lives due to loss of means of survival. In fact, the government publicly declared that the state was not meant for some of them urging them to come to its seat of power in Alausa to collect paltry N3,500 to transport themselves back to their villages.
No doubt, infrastructure development will come with varying degrees of pain but what sensitive government does is to ameliorate the pains of the most vulnerable in the society. The drive for the so called Mega City was death knell for many people.
The latest of the loads of anti-people policies of this current administration is its insistence that the children of the poor are not entitled to quality higher education.
The State commissioner for Economic Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze yesterday while speaking on appropriation of Lagos State University reiterated the position of the government that those without fat bank accounts should not seek higher education in the state.
He said it was not possible to provide quality education if the school fee was pegged at N25,000. Currently, the students of the Lagos State University pay from 195,000 and N350,000 making the school the most expensive public University in Nigeria and perhaps in the Sub- Saraha Africa.
Akabueze said: “LASU is not funded by the tuition fees paid by the students. It is not possible in today’s world to get quality tertiary education at N25,000. Many Nigerians pay more than that to fund their children’s education at the primary education level. Government around the world spends more money funding basic education than tertiary education. This is to create platform for more people to be educated.”
It is unfortunate that those that essentially benefitted from the visionary and people oriented education policies of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo are now against the intellectual emancipation of the people of the region.
Awolowo, among other nationalists remained respected till date because of his free education policy which he used to ultimately liberate his people.
What is most frightened in the whole charade is the conspiracy of silence especially in the camp of civil rights organizations. Where are the vibrant Lagos human rights lawyers and activists that are often eager to lampoon President Goodluck Jonathan’s over the most trivial issues?. Is it that they are being sponsored by the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC to malign the character of the government at the centre and become blind and dump to fragrant violation of fundamental human rights including right to QUALITY EDUCATION in the APC states . If this was not the case, how come they have not sustained agitation against this wicked, insensitive school fees regime at LASU.
Instead of respected icon(s) in the South west to be making comments over remote political crisis in far-away Rivers State, they should first put their house (Lagos, Southwest)in order by ensuring that the region’s legacy of quality and affordable education is sustained.
Now, let get closer to the issue. Governor Babatunde Fashola attended the same secondary school I attended, Birch Freeman High School, Surulere Lagos, a missionary school at that time and finished in 1978. If the school had wickedly imposed high fee on students would his parents been able to train him in school.
After his secondary school education, Fashola gained admission into University of Benin, to study law. Till date, UNIBEN is still rated as one of the best universities in Nigeria and the fees are still within what many struggling Nigerian parents can afford just as Fashola’s parents could afford then. Moreso, there are scholarships for indigent students in those days which I believe the governor must have benefited.
The question we need to ask Lagos State Government is that what is the rationale behind such outrageous fees, is it that the government was planning of turning LASU into prestigious Harvard University over night. Despite the warped arguments by the aides of the governor that the government needed to impose excruciating fees to generate enough funds to miraculously turn the school into paradise, is N350,000 a fair fee in a city where most of its inhabitants are leaving in slums.
Is it not strange that most political elite whose fathers were peasant farmers with a meager income were able to enjoy qualitative free education up to university courtesy of Awolowo’s free education can now argue that with over N30 billion monthly Internal Generated Revenue, accruing to the state, affordable education cannot be within the reach of the people.
The Lagos State House of Assembly that should serve should advocate for the welfare of their constituents have been captured by the Executive and the political principalities in the state. The Assembly is just a mere rubber-stamp.
Last Friday , I witnessed the sitting of the Assembly when they summoned the principal officers of the Lagos State University, LASU and the representatives of the Students’ union leaders over the violent protested that broke out in the school as a result of the exorbitant fees.
To my chagrin, some of the lawmakers declared that any parent who could not afford the crazy fees should consider other schools . What an unfortunately submission from the self acclaimed people’s representatives.
Let the truth be told, the current school fees regime of LASU is not in the interest of the teeming Lagosians. Except if governor Babatunde Fashola is only telling us that he was only elected to protect the interest of the few privileged individuals in highbrow locations in the state.
This wicked gang up against the poor in Lagos must stop now .
Enitan I. Olukotun,
Convener , Systemic Change Nigeria
bureimoh@yahoo.com
