Labour rejects call to privatise Queen’s College

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has flayed calls by the President of Queen’s College Old Students Association, Mrs. F. Ajose that Queen’s College should be privatised.

Speaking in Lagos yesterday, the ASCSN Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, regretted that the outbreak of diarrhea at Queen’s College, Lagos, had provided impetus for renewed calls for the privatisation of Unity Schools.

‘‘In a normal society, what should concern genuine patriots including old students is to see how the health issues in Queen’s College should be brought under control. “But in Nigeria, since the eyes of the elite have always been on how to sell the 104 Federal Unity Colleges to themselves in the name of privatisation, the diarrhea outbreak in Queen’s College had provided another opportunity for their self-serving agenda,” the Union lamented.

The ASCSN posited that those, including old students of the Unity Colleges, who wished to own secondary schools, should set up their own instead of using every opportunity to start campaigns that Unity Colleges should be turned into their private estates.

It added that the 104 Federal Unity Colleges had continued to excel at examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO).

‘‘The Unity Colleges were set up in the 1960s by the then Tafawa Balewa Government to act as unifying institutions for children and staff from various parts of the country apart from being models for secondary education in the country.

‘‘Since inception in 1966, the Federal Unity Colleges, which had increased from three when it first started to 104 as at today, have continued to fulfil those objectives.
“It is, therefore, surprising that instead of nurturing the ideals of the founding fathers of the Federal Unity Colleges, some unpatriotic persons are bent on converting the schools and the vast expense of land thereof into their private property,” the Union regretted.

The ASCSN recalled that few years ago, it embarked on about seven (7 weeks) strike to prevent the regime of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from auctioning the schools to its cronies.