Workers of the Federal Ministry of Education and leaders of affiliated trade unions have staged another protest in Abuja against the Federal Government’s concession of King’s College, Lagos, and plans involving Federal Unity Colleges across the country.
The workers gathered at the Ministry of Education headquarters on Monday, carrying placards and chanting solidarity songs while demanding that the government reverse the concession arrangement.
The protesters also opposed any move to transfer the management of Federal Unity Colleges to private organisations, insisting that the institutions should remain under public ownership and control.
The latest protest followed the decision by education unions to suspend the resumption of students in Federal Unity Colleges nationwide.
The unions directed that students should not return for the new academic session until the government addresses their concerns over the concession of King’s College and other issues affecting the schools.
The workers warned that the dispute could extend beyond King’s College and affect more than 100 Federal Unity Colleges across the country if the government fails to reconsider its position.
They argued that the Federal Unity Colleges were established to provide affordable quality education while promoting national integration by bringing students from different parts of the country together.
Speaking during the protest, a trade union leader in the ministry, Comrade Gali Habib, said the workers were opposed to policies that could weaken the public character of the institutions.
Habib said many Nigerian families depended on the Federal Unity Colleges because they offered quality education at subsidised rates.
He argued that transferring the schools to private management could make them less accessible to children from low-income families.
The union leader therefore called on the Federal Government to increase funding for the schools instead of transferring their management to private interests.
He urged the government to provide more resources for infrastructure, teachers’ welfare and learning facilities to improve the standard of the institutions.
Habib also warned that the workers would continue their industrial action until the government reverses the concession decision.
The latest protest came days after workers of the Federal Ministry of Education shut down the ministry in Abuja and threatened to extend the action to Federal Unity Colleges nationwide.
The Joint Workers Union had also warned that the ministry and the schools could remain closed indefinitely if the concession arrangement was not withdrawn.
Parents and students of King’s College had earlier staged a separate protest in Lagos, demanding that the Federal Government retain control of the institution and threatening legal action over the matter.
Workers at King’s College have also rejected the concession, with the school’s unit of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria expressing concerns about the future of staff under the proposed arrangement.
However, the Federal Government has rejected claims that King’s College is being sold or privatised.
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, said the government would retain legal ownership of the institution.
According to Alausa, the arrangement is a public-private partnership that will enable the King’s College Old Boys’ Association to finance the rehabilitation, modernisation, operation and maintenance of the school.
He added that the Federal Government would retain its statutory, regulatory, monitoring, inspection and enforcement responsibilities over the institution.
The King’s College Old Boys’ Association has also maintained that the arrangement does not amount to the sale of the school.
