THIS VICTIMISATION MUST NOT DISTRACT THE STRUGGLE
“At times, we may be too weak to prevent injustice, but we must never be weary to protest it.”
Last week, we all received notifications from the Division of Students’
Affairs of pending letters from the university administration. To our
utter dismay, the letters carried headings of clear witch-hunting,
victimization, and unnecessary intimidation, and disguised as different
categories of suspension. Exclusively, eight of us were served
indefinite suspension pending police investigation over a purported
"abduction" of Abeeb Alabi Olayinka (Angel), Chairman of Students'
Electoral Commission in April 2014. Wole Olubanji (Engels), Adabale
Olamide, Ademuwagun Johnson, Ibirogba Samuel (Sammy), Olusiji Nelson
(Mandela), Pele Obasa (Chocomilo), Sanyaolu Oluwajuwon and Abimbola
Abiodun (Anchor) were all served letters of indefinite suspension under
this category.
In the same vein, all members of the Central
Executive Council (CEC), including the Clerk of the Parliament and
several students’ activists (including those ones earlier served
indefinite suspension) were also served these vindictive letters under
another category called “rustication.” For this category, the university
administration classified it as punishment for act of misconduct for
participating in the Students’ protest of May/June 2014. As a funny
development, the university went ahead in this same letter to inform us
that the rustication order has been suspended because of several
“appeals” and “we are hereby placed under probation so that the
university management can observe our readiness to comply with rules of
the university.”
Please note that these rules, given the
interpretation of the vindictive letters, mean that it is unlawful for
students to reject or protest obnoxious policies of the university, even
if such protests are legitimate and guaranteed under the constitution
and laws of the Federal republic. In short, engaging in students'
struggles is criminal!
In strict conformity with previous vindictive
arrangements of the university administration, the arguments on which
the various suspension orders are premised are not only flimsy, but
self-destructive. It also confirms that the exercise is designed to
witch-hunt students’ activists and to cow their colleagues into
submission over the unresolved issue of school fee-hike.
Firstly,
the indefinite suspension order over Students’ Union elections in April
and the fictitious allegation of abduction of Abeeb Alabi Olayinka
(Angel), Chairman of Electoral Commission of 2013/2014 parliamentary
year, is unwarranted and cruel. In fact, it is an arrangement of the
University Administration to protect their agent and dissuade students
in the future from challenging the excessive interference of the
management in Students’ Union activities. As against all known norms of
our union, including clearly entrenched provisions of Article 5 of the
Students’ Union constitution, Angel went ahead to disqualify students’
activists under the directive of the university management. When
students approached him for explanations for this clear departure from
union values, he said his hands were tied and the “disqualification was
beyond him.” In an event the university management later termed as
abduction, mass of students had gathered at Afrika Amphi Theatre to
demand from Angel why the names of screened candidates would be
arbitrarily dropped from the election debate activity. A number of Great
Ife students can bear witness to the subsequent development of
questioning, which was moderated by Angel himself. This action in the
university dictionary of language is called “abduction.” Does it mean
that the mass of students involved in questioning of Angel were
abductors?
We are however not surprised that the Omole-led
administration has reverted back to the barbaric regime of sheer
blackmail, character assassination and blatant lies. These are known
attributes of the OAU management, especially wielded when students
defend themselves against obnoxious policies threatening their study and
welfare. Management had thought that the disqualification of
dissenters, who resent unjust and undemocratic policies of the
university, would pave the way for little or no resistance against a
prospective fee hike, which came barely a month after the students’
union election. Alas! Management miscalculated. Students protested,
because they are not oblivious of reason and are not ignorant of what is
right, just and acceptable. This time: the thinking is that with the
suspension of students’ activists who have argued for continuous action
until the hike is reversed, and the incrimination of students’ protest
as the probation order means, then the resistance of students against
the fee would have been completely broken. Management desperately wants
us out of campus, with the phantasmagoric belief that students would not
think rightly when some of us are not on campus. This is a wrong and
mechanical mode of thinking. Take us off; Great Ife students will defend
themselves to the latter!
Though the university might have shut the
university gates against us, but they can never shut our mouths, and
the words that come out of them against oppression, injustice, and
conscious destruction of thousands of lives. For us, the election fraud,
probation drama, and vindictive letters of suspension are all offshoots
of our struggle. And they are clear indication that management fears
the unknown, and the unpredictable power of mass of students. Why should
the management not fear when history has the long but tenacious battle
of our LASU colleagues against vicious authorities, including the
deserved victory at the end of it?
What is worth fighting at all is
worth fighting well. The demand of the university that we should take
responsibility for the crass ineptitude of the scoundrels misruling this
country is unacceptable, irritating to common sense; and it is worth
fighting hard and well. Government should fund education, not our poor
parents, who earn N18, 000 as minimum wage and mostly live on less than
$2 per day. We hence advise the university to reverse its vicious
policy, which has already deprived some of our colleagues from coming
back to school. The ridiculous reduction in fee is a placebo to give us
the erroneous impression that the disease has been cured. Great Ife! Do
not be deceived, the dangers of fee-hike are not imaginative, but real.
Neither reduction nor the filthy hands of witch-hunt must dissuade us
from this just cause. History is with us.
We should state clearly to
Great Ife students that we do not so wish to cultivate martyrdom nor
heroism as these are not part of the norms and values of our union. But
we greatly wish not to give our management the satisfaction of this
imperious but vindictive action. Colleagues, as with the generation
before us, who laid the foundation of the greatness of our campus and
union on tenacity and readiness to oppose injustice: the ball is in our
court and the hard decisions are only ours to make.
We thank Great
Ife students for the opportunities given us to serve, and we leave you
with these legendary words of Frantz Fannon; “every generation, out of
relative obscurity, has a mission – its either they fulfill it or betray
it!”
Amandla Awethu… Nothing shall discourage us!!!
Signed:
Wole Olubanji (Engels),
Adabale Olamide,
Ademuwagun Johnson,
Ibirogba Samuel (Sammie)
Sanyaolu Oluwajuwon(Com. Juwon)
