THE MISUSE AND LATENCY OF STUDENT POWER

Nigeria’s tertiary institutions’ student body does not only lack focus, it is compromised, argues Monday Philips Ekpe

Dateline: April 17, 1978. The National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), former umbrella organisation of students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria, declared boycott of lectures to mount pressure on the military administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo to reverse its decision to increase school fees. Interestingly, beyond the immediate responsibility of protecting the rights and welfare of its members, NUNS was also interested in furthering the cause of bettering the lives of average citizens. All over the country, the first day went by without any ugly incident. Compliance was total. No ethnic, religious or regional sentiments stood in the way. The government and people took notice. The famous “Ali must go” protest was underway. 

On the second day, however, the atmosphere at the University of Lagos (Unilag) was fouled. Its main gate was barricaded by the police to stop the peaceful march the students had planned to Dodan Barracks, the then seat of the federal government. The confrontation that followed between the unarmed students and their heavily armed aggressors produced an unspecified number of casualties and injuries. Newspaper reports the next day on that tragic encounter ensured that tempers rose sharply across the nation among students and the populace. What had started as a nonviolent registering of grievances was quickly snowballing into an uncontrollable situation. It soon became clear that more disaster was inevitable.

The next theatre of tears and blood was Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Unlike at Unilag where the cops blocked the major entrance into the ivory tower, the case of ABU was more awkward and provocative. This time, gun-brandishing soldiers forced their way into the campus to quell a riot that existed only in their minds. By the time the dust settled, between five and eight students laid dead. That second round of killings triggered unarmed revolt nationwide, particularly on campuses and university cities and towns. The uprising was bound to gather and maintain momentum as the radical student movement, leading lights of the Nigerian left and labour community worked in concert to pull the government of the day to the path of sensitivity, fairness and justice. After about one week, all institutions of higher learning in Nigeria were shut down. Although the concerns of the students were not immediately addressed and NUNS was proscribed by the overbearing junta, the capacity of students to mobilise themselves to achieve common goals was no longer in doubt. The potency of the combined energy of the country’s student population had, yet again, moved onto the centre-stage.

Watchers of Nigeria’s social engineering would have no problems identifying the current attempts at student unionism as weak, detached from a spirited and evidently more glorious past. In 1925, West African Students Union (WASU) was established by African, mainly Nigerian, students in London to join forces with the anti-colonialism elements back home. That step galvanised public debates and orchestrated resistance that eventually brought white rule to its knees.

When the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) later took over from NUNS, its objectives were very clear: pursuit of affordable, qualitative tertiary education, high standard of living for the people and access to internationally recognised human rights. The May 1986 “Ango must go” agitation that rocked ABU and which soon engulfed virtually every campus in the country tested its character. After the police fatally shot a female student and some others there, students everywhere rose in unison and in defiance of naked state brutality and the prospect of a certain death. The first university that reacted was the then University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University). That underscored the unity and solidarity that existed within the ranks of the students who demonstrated at every turn the possibility of mass mobilisation devoid of the primordial sentiments that threaten our national cohesion today.

Nostalgia is an intriguing phenomenon. The past creeps into your consciousness and you relive it in your mind. If the present is not palatable or favourable, the mere remembrance of how things used to be can indeed provide some ready, welcome substitution. It is important, though, for one not to become too engrossed in the events or experiences gone by as that can lead to undesirable consequences, especially psychologically. In Nigeria where a sizable part of the population can recall how wonderful some aspects of national life were in comparison to the dwindling fortunes being recorded in many areas today, reminiscing can actually provide the badly needed relief. It can also signal the hope that re-enactments and even better versions of yore are not out of reach after all.

Something happened two weeks ago that illustrates the present pitiable state of student unionism in Nigeria. Some South West leaders of NANS reportedly threatened that students of tertiary institutions would shut major airports across the nation in reaction to the on-going strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). And what was the occasion? The students had gone to the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja to support the second term bid of the Governor of Ogun State, Mr Dapo Abiodun. That duplicitous move would have been sacrilegious some years ago. Students and their leaders openly and collectively identifying with a politician’s personal aspirations? Whatever the message on that day was had been sufficiently compromised by that partisan setting.

The South East leadership of the student body had equally issued an ultimatum for the re-opening of public universities, reminding everyone about the dire outcomes of any default. “It is our hope”, it warned, “it does not get to this point, but when we are pushed to the wall, we are ready to hold the bull by the horn. Emphatically, we re-emphasise once again that government should show a commitment to the oath of protecting the interest and welfare of Nigerians and Nigerian students which they swore to.” Gradually, decisive and result-oriented actions are being replaced with verbosity, hollow, silly rituals and grandstanding. The other day, I read with shock that a section of NANS “ordered” lecturers to return to classes.

It is truly sad that at a time of great national need that requires harnessing all relevant variables to fortify the future, our students lack corporate direction and resolve. The protests they have so far staged in various parts of the country to draw attention to their continued stay at home have failed to achieve meaningful results largely because they lack strategy, consistency and vigour. This ought to bother them and the rest of the citizenry. So much was accomplished by their forebears without the benefit of the enhanced media of mass communication available to this generation. Is it that societal values have changed drastically and irreversibly?

Students should resist the easy option of blaming their present plight and hazy future on the rampaging, unaccountable old order. They can tap inspiration from the heroes past and other lands where their brave and selfless counterparts have stood up to be counted among architects of national landmarks and development. Where to start from in the current circumstances is to sanitise their growing image of being rentable for all sorts of purposes and by men and women of questionable motives. Nigerian students must not lose sight of the fact that even in the face of the de-marketing of the education sector, they are parts of a privileged intellectual elite imbued with productive and transformative powers.

Dr Ekpe is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board  

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 So much was accomplished by their forebears without the benefit of the enhanced media of mass communication available to this generation