Students cry out as authorities crack down on unionism

For Omotayo Akande, a student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, this is not the best of times. He is the president of the institution’s Student Union, who was suspended last year.

Akande, who bagged suspension in January following a protest at OAU, told our correspondent on Monday, “I wonder what the Federal Government and the leadership of the various public universities think of the students. Nobody takes our plight seriously. Many of the campuses in the country are not conducive to learning and this explains why there seems to be protest in many schools.

“When we complain, some people think that we merely engage in protest because of youthful exuberance. This is not true. We complain because there is genuine cause in our demands. I strongly believe that the Federal Government is deliberately trying to frustrate us from continuing our education.”

That the OAU student leader harbours this feeling of anguish is not surprising. In the last few months, many of the nation’s tertiary institutions, especially public universities and polytechnics are in crises, occasioned by students’ protests.

From OAU, Yaba College of Technology; University of Lagos, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State; to the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, just to mention a few, it is one form of crisis or another. While UNILAG, OAU, and UI Student Union leaders are battling their authorities over poor conditions of living on their campuses, UNIPORT students are neck deep in crisis with the school management because of the tuition they consider too high..

Interestingly, as these protests go on across the country, the umbrella body for student activism appears to bear the anger of the authorities. While the Secretary General, Senu Oketwoto; and the Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojedokun,  both of the OAU Student Union, are also on suspension, the sledgehammer seems to be also dangling in the other universities across the country.

Already, the authorities of UNILAG have dissolved the Student Union of the school following a protest against poor welfare conditions and high cost of goods and services on campus. The ULSU was resuscitated barely two years ago after over a decade of proscription. At UI also, the demand for the reinstatement of a student leader as well as the call for improved welfare conditions on campus provoked the protest that resulted in the shutting of the 56-year-old ivory tower last week.

At UNIPORT where a student lost his life, the authorities of the university have also suspended the student union body.

Appraising the development, a non-governmental organisation, Education Rights Campaign, says the actions of many of the universities are draconian. The ERC, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Hassan Taiwo, and the National Secretary, Michael Ogundele, argues that the decision to dissolve student bodies and institute anti-students policies on campuses is an assault on the freedom of association and other democratic rights.

The ERC, which makes special reference to happenings at UNILAG, notes that “re-absorption oath” as demanded by the authorities is unheard of in the annals of the nation’s university system.

According to the group, the only permissible oath in the university system is that of matriculation.

The campaign group adds, “All the university is doing is simply to manufacture all kinds of quasi-legal measures to keep students enslaved and unable to defend themselves against the institution’s anti-poor polices. Such draconian clampdown on freedom of expression was the hallmark of military despotism in Nigeria. They have failed before and will fail again.”

The National Association of Nigerian Students, Tijani Usman, agrees with the ERC. According to Usman, the unfolding drama in the tertiary institutions is giving the majority of the students cause for concern.

The NANS president, who says the association will not allow the clampdown to continue, notes that no fewer than 141 student union leaders are converging on Abuja this week to discuss with the leadership of the National Assembly on the way forward.

He explains, “We are not happy with the trends across the country. The leadership in many of the universities and polytechnics are not ready to listen to us even when we have genuine complaints bordering on poor welfare conditions, and dearth of infrastructure, among other inadequacies. Many of the vice-chancellors, for instance, sound very dictatorial, as they do not even want to see us, not to talk of listening to us.

“We have decided to meet with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, as well as other National Assembly leaders between May 4 and 11 to examine this ugly development. We hope for a meaningful deliberation so that student activism in the country will not be crippled in a democratic dispensation.”

The ULSU President, Mohammed Olaniyan, who also frowns on the clampdown, explains that it will not augur well for the training of future leaders. “If at this level, they do not allow us to operate and express ourselves, I wonder how they will groom us to become leaders of tomorrow,” he adds.

Responding to the allegations that many student leaders are interested in lining their pockets, Akande notes that the OAU student body caters to the welfare of the students.

He adds, “In the 2014/2015 academic session, we spent about N1.6m to pay for the tuition of 85 students. We did this even when the authorities of the university had not remitted all the money it collected on behalf of the union. If indeed such sharp practices go on in other universities, they do not take place at OAU.”