15th October, 2012
Students of Tai Solarin College of Education, TACOED, Ijebu in Odogbolu local government area of Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria, this morning stormed the streets protesting the prolonged crisis between the unions of the institution and its management.
The protest commenced about 6a.m. when the students in their hundreds arrived the campus and sent away workers who wanted to enter their offices.
Led by their president, Comrade Oladimeji Bashorun and student’s union government speaker, Shakiru Adekunle, the students deflated the tryes of vehicles driven by staff who wanted to drive into the campus. They barricaded the gate and made bonfires with disused tyres at the entrance of the institution.
Chanting solidarity songs, the students carried placards with various inscriptions calling on Ogun state Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun to pay their lecturers and also called for the removal of the provost, Dr. Abiodun Ojo and Mr. Tunji Kanimodo, the registrar.
In an interview with P.M.NEWS, the students’ speaker, Adekunle said: “the best instrument students have to get what they want is to stage a protest. We have made several consultations to no avail. We are at the receiving end. We ought to have written our exams about five months ago.
“But we know we have a highly respectable personality in person of Senator Amosun. We are appealing to him to come to our aid.”
Speaking in the same vein, the students’ union President, Bashorun, said: “We are not instrument of destruction. Education is not a privilege but our right. We have tried the instrument of Aluta. We have tried our best not to destroy any property in the school.” Fielding questions during a media parley held to clear the air earlier on Friday, Amosun said his administration did not owe any backlog of arrears adding that because governance is a continuum, he has promised to pay the lecturers installmentally.
“I’ve paid about N3 billion salary arrears to workers but TACOED lecturers said I should pay them at once. And I asked them where they want me to get such amount,” Amosun said.
The unions claimed the state government was owing them salary arrears for 39 months. P.M.NEWS learnt this morning that TACOED union leaders have resolved to stay away from the school until the crisis is finally resolved.
When our correspondent made a call to the State Commissioner for Education, Barrister Segun Odubela, he did not pick his calls.
—Abiodun Onafuye/Ijebu-Ode