Ayo Bankole: The way I see it!!!: Student Unionism In Nigeria; The Past, The Present, and the Future

Ayo Bankole: The way I see it!!!: Student Unionism In Nigeria; The Past, The Present, and the Future

Student Unionism In Nigeria; The Past, The Present, and the Future

I made quite a number of adversaries in my university days because of my unwavering stand on student unionism in Nigeria and its consequent degradation. I always believed that the suspension of unionism in Nigerian institutions was justified and that a complete overall of unionist activities was inevitable.

Student unions had been hijacked by rascals and activism replaced with terrorism and cultism. In the days of civilized and vibrant unionism, student unions were known to effect major changes and influence government decisions through high level organized protests and demonstrations. In the hey days of the military and even years preceding it, Nigerian students and its leaders were an integral part of the pro-democracy struggle and were reputed to produce leaders of enviable intellect with a depth of national issues and strong diplomatic and negotiation skills with which they won most of the struggles with various authorities. Riots were usually the very last resorts and they were usually calculated and organized, with strategic agenda for the actualization of their demands.

One of such riots that easily comes to mind was the “Ali must go” riot in 1978. As chronicled by Taminu Umar in his paper “The Derailment Of Student Unionism In Nigeria” ‘...During the uprising many student’s lives were lost while agitating for the ouster of the then education minister, colonel Ahmadu Ali ... The “Ali Must Go”, riots like many in those days, was a landmark achievement by student unionism in Nigeria: it has opened up the eyes of our leaders to the fact that students knew their rights and can fight oppression no matter the intimidation...’

Student leaders were almost incorruptible and impenetrable! Those were the days when the fear of NANS was the beginning of wisdom for dictators and totalitarian rulers!

However, like every other spectrum of the Nigerian society, student unionism derailed…it came down so hard and so fast that there was a thin line, or no line at all, between terrorism, cultism, and unionism! In fact, renowned cultists became the determinants of who to become elected in union elections, and NANS congresses became characterized by clashes and cold-blooded murders.

The degradation not only applied to the make-up of the unions, it also had bearing on the modus operandi of “activism”. Intellectual activism died. And terrorist activism was born. Students began to engage in acts which brought to ridicule the whole essence of unionism and rubbished tertiary education as a whole. For example, a Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan was “kidnapped” and locked up in the toilet of a male hostel for hours! In some other “alutas”, there were recorded cases were some Vice Chancellors were made to frog-jump for several kilometers! Student protests became synonymous with vandalism and thus contributed to the dearth in educational infrastructure, with little or no ideology and intellectual content in those protests; it was difficult, or almost impossible to articulate and communicate a clear set of actualize-able demands and thus, most protests only left behind tales of woes; deaths, vandalism, loss of academic calendar, etc and no real victory for the struggle.

At a brainstorming session with some selected youth leaders on the design of a strategic roadmap for educational advancement and youth empowerment, I accused the Ladoja government and politicians generally as being largely responsible for the derailment in education and student unionism. I also opined that the only way to reform and increase intellectualism among our students was to phase-out all unions and then build new ones with new attitude and enlightened leadership. The politicians were also to stop involving student unions in politics and buying out their future with bags of money. A large percentage of the derailment in the unions can be alluded to the student leaders’ exposure to government bribes and university authority buy-outs. This is responsible for sky-rocketing the desperation and violence at union elections.

This opinion still stands till today! A new union is inevitable, Nigerian students have no leadership as at today. NANS exists solely for the benefit of any government of the day, with former NANS president Kenneth Orkuma Hembe endorsing former President Obasanjo’s very unpopular third term agenda and even recently, NANS president Comrade Dauda Mohammed came out to support the removal of fuel subsidy!!! In his statement published in Leadership Newspapers of 19^th January 2012, he said “…NANS appreciates the courage of President Goodluck Jonathan in removing the fraudulent fuel subsidy and agrees in totality with the federal government on the inevitability of the removal. We strongly believe that the subsidy removal is a bold step in fighting the corruption that has defied all known accounting principle in NNPC…” It reeks of a totally conscienceless, bought-out and aptly corrupt union that lacks the ability to organize, articulate and defend the interests of students and youths.

We need to, as a matter of urgency, build a union that can mobilize students for world-class struggles as witnessed by students in Europe, we need to give birth to a union that can organize sit-ins and occupy campuses without bloodshed, a union whose democratic processes can serve as a benchmark and model for other democratic institutions, a union that can lay a framework for a generational shift in the Nigerian battered value-system and a union that can earn the respect of both school and state authorities. That is the future I desire for student unionism in Nigeria. So help me God.