The crisis rocking King’s College, Lagos, may have deepened as protesting staff union members of the institution prevented members of the Old Boys’ Association from gaining access to the school.
Speaking with journalists outside the school premises, President of the Old Boys’ Association, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, said the planned concession is a mandate to reposition the institution and not an outright sale.
Chanting solidarity songs, followed by the school anthem, are the old boys of King’s College, Lagos.
The President, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, speaking to journalists at the gate, said the concession is not a privatisation of the college, adding that the Federal Executive Council had met and resolved to hand over the management of the college to the old boys on the basis of a public-private partnership.
The Lagos State Police Command, led by the Commissioner of Police, Fatai Tijani, said officers were there to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order.
Speaking on behalf of the protesting workers, the National Coordinator of the Federal Workers Forum, Andrew Emelieze, noted that it is the responsibility of the government to fund education, insisting that his members are ready to continue the protest and calling for a reversal of the concessioning.
King’s College, Lagos, was established in 1909 as part of the Federal Government’s network of unity colleges and has, from inception, been administered as a public institution.
The controversy over the planned concessioning still lingers as academic activities in unity schools nationwide are put on hold.
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Editor: Ada Ononye
