Association Vows To Resist Privatisation Of Unity Schools

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, on Wednesday in Lagos, vowed to resist any attempt to privatise the Unity Schools in the country.

Mr. Lawal Alade-Bashiru, the Deputy Secretary-General of the association made the statement at a two-day stakeholders forum, organised by King’s College Lagos, as part of activities lined up to commemorate the school’s 102nd Founders Day anniversary.

Alade-Bashiru told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that antecedents of succeeding administrations had shown that some policies had been tailored towards ceding the colleges in the guise of public-private partnership.

He said that the Unity Schools remained a commonwealth, belonging to Nigeria and Nigerians and that if there were challenges, they were meant to be solved.

“It has come to our notice that a select few who believed that this country belongs to them alone had been seeking means of extending their privatisation plans to the education sector.

“They want to appropriate government properties to themselves and now they want to turn their search lights on the Unity Schools which belong to all Nigerian.

“We know they would want to come up with idea that they want to develop the schools, meanwhile their major motive is to appropriate the land mass of these institutions including King’s College.

“But I can assure you that it will not happen and we are waiting for them,” he said.

He said the association had discovered plans by individuals to sell off the nation’s most prestigious secondary schools, which would further worsen the problem of access for the average Nigerian.