The Oyo State chapter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) has described the failure of the state government to pay 13-month salaries to workers in the six tertiary institutions in the state as a sign of gross irresponsibility and insensitivity of the Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led government.
SPN maintained that the state government had continued to slash subventions that were necessary for the smooth running of each of six tertiary institutions in the state to 25% of its pre-2015 amount.
It stated that education is a social responsibility of the government and that it was compulsory for any government to always ensure that it was adequately and properly funded irrespective of whether or not each of the educational institution had the capacity to generate revenue internally.
“This is the main reason why UNESCO recommended that every government irrespective of level must always ensure that 26% of its yearly budget must be voted on education”, it said.
SPN in a statement made available to DAILY POST on Tuesday in Ibadan by its scribe, Comrade Abiodun Bamigboye said it was in support of the ongoing indefinite strike embarked upon by workers in the six Oyo State owned tertiary institutions to demand the payment of the over 13 months salaries.
Bamigboye said “They are being owed by the Isiaka Ajimobi/APC-led government in the state. We at the same time, call on labour, students of the six affected institutions; their parents, guardians and general public to rise and support the agitation of the striking workers with a view to prevail on the Oyo State government to immediately and unconditionally accede to their legitimate demands.
“The six tertiary institutions affected are: The Polytechnic, Ibadan; Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo; Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology; The Ibarapa Polytechnic, Eruwa; The Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki and College of Education, Lanlate.
Bamigboye described the action of government as a sign of gross irresponsibility and insensitivity.”
“It is a sign of gross irresponsibility and insensitivity of the Ajimobi-led government to have slashed the subventions that are necessary for the smooth running of each of six tertiary institutions in the state to 25% of its pre-2015 amount. Education is a social responsibility of the government which means that it is compulsory for any government to always ensure that it is adequately and properly funded irrespective of whether or not each of the educational institution has the capacity to generate revenue internally. This is the main reason why UNESCO recommended that every government irrespective of level must always ensure that 26% of its yearly budget must be voted on education.
“It is in the light of this that SPN urges that striking workers to make sure that their on-going struggle for the payment of their over 13 months’ salary arrears is linked to the struggle for adequate and proper funding of public education and democratic management in the state.
“The claim that there are no enough financial resources to adequately and properly fund public education is not true!
“There is more than enough resource at the disposal of the state, despite the decline in the federal allocation that can guarantee adequate and proper funding of public education in the state.
“However, the reason these huge resources continue to fail to reflect in any improvement in the quantity and quality of public education in the state is the misappropriation and financial corruption by members of the ruling class both in government and business in the state. Huge proportion of the resources that are meant to fund public education and other social services are often shared through bloated salaries/allowances and inflated contracts among the political office holders and their acolytes in business.
“It is in a bid to bring an end to this tradition of impunity among the political class that SPN calls on the striking workers, students and parents of the affected institution to echo its age-long demands which include an end to the inglorious regime of security vote, corrupt contract system while ensuring that money liberated from this measure is massively invested in social services like education, health etc and public infrastructure through a public work programme placed under a democratic control of a committee of workers and other members of the community. This is very important because inflation of contracts has been one of the ways through which politicians and big business siphon public money under contract system.
“In conclusion, SPN holds that, workers in education sector should begin to realize that the struggle for adequate funding of education and improvement in workers’ wages has to be linked with the necessity of a pro- masses government that can commit society’s resources to provide free and functional education and guarantee decent living standards to all categories of working people.
“This will involve building a genuine, mass-based political party committed to leading the working people to achieve its historical task of taking over political power from the capitalist ruling class and establishing a workers and poor peoples’ government with socialist plan of production which is the only society that can guarantee the provision of a free and functional education for all Nigerians”, he stated.
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