For the first time in his eight years as governor of Lagos state, Mr. Babatunde Fashola received a dose of humiliation from civil servants, civil society groups, workers and students of the Lagos State University (LASU) as they all booed him, prevented the usual parades that characterises Workers Day celebration and prevented him from taking the salute.
Before May Day, lecturers had been at loggerheads with the state government over staff welfare while the students had been battling the school management and government over an unusual hike in tuition fees.
A group of civil society activists sympathetic to workers had slammed him days ago for suggesting that labour issues be expunged from the exclusive list of the constitution and placed on the residual list.
The protesters who stormed Onikan stadium, venue of the celebration in ambush of the governor, chanted antigovernment songs while accusing Fashola of insensitivity to the plights of the people, especially with regards to the LASU fees that was increased from N25,000 to between N190,000 and N350,000 depending on the course of study.
Several attempts by the police, led by the state`s Commander of Rapid Response Squad, Hakeem Odumosu, to discourage the protesters failed. The more the Police tried, the more the protesters charged towards the state box, some trying to enter.
To further embarrass the governor, Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities told all present that the governor, without conscience, increased the school fees obnoxiously and frustrating the development of lecturers through anti-human policies and poor welfare.
“The problem is very clear. Our members are protesting against the exorbitant school fees that is being charged at LASU, school fees that range from N197,000 to N350,000,” the chairman said.
“For first degree, we believe it is exorbitant, it is anti-people and against the citizens of this country and that is why we are protesting today amidst other things going on at LASU, such as premature retirement of our professors on the professorial cadre, such as the evil policy of the university administration of LASU that says that our people will not be promoted until when they create the vacancies and that is against the tenet of university worldwide.
“We are here to protest and there is no reason to celebrate, there is no cause to celebrate, are we celebrating our girls that have been kidnapped? We have a situation where people are not being paid the minimum wage and are asked to pay school fees between N197,000 and N350,000. We say no to this oppression,” he told the crowd.
In his speech, Dr. Dipo Fashina of the Joint Action Forum (JAF) demanded for a total reversal of the LASU fees, while calling on workers to stand firm against any intimidation.
“If your government refuses to do it, another government will do it. If you want education for the rich, go and create your own university,” Fashina said.
According to him, LASU was created a public university and adequate funding of education is not negotiable.
He said LASU cannot be run like a secondary school and that “the right of workers to promotion is not negotiable, the right of students to independent unionism is not negotiable.”
He said issues like this are what the country was currently suffering in the form of insecurity.
“You can see what our country has become, today, no security, they can take away our 200 girls and yet the government is irresponsible,” he told the crowd.
Fashola, who remained outwardly unperturbed by the hullaballoo, said he had heard the complaints; however, he attempted to give his own side of the story.
“What people who came here (the protesters) did not tell you is that I have met twice with those who wear the shoes, the students, and we have agreed that we will find a middle ground,” he said.
“I can confirm to you now from our last meeting, I told them the reasons and the circumstances in which we took the decision that we took. There seem to be a better understanding of the choices that we have to make. I can now confirm to you that yesterday I received their letters, setting out their own version.
“Of course, I have to go back to my Executive Council to review the proposals they brought forward and to communicate our own position to them. So I don’t know if those who came here are students and I don’t know if they are representatives of the students.”
