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Unrest Looms At OAU, Ife Over Suspension of Student Leaders

Vanguard (Lagos)
NEWS
June 12, 2003
Posted to the web June 13, 2003

By Olubusuyi Pekun

TROUBLE is brewing at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife over the recent
suspension order slammed on four students' union leaders of the institution for
leading students in protesting the hike in charges payable for the 2002/2003
academic session.
The students' body of the university have outrightly rejected the suspension
order and have rolled out their strategies of reversing the suspension order.
Obafemi Awolowo University is renowned as an hotbed of students' and teachers'
militancy and the suspended leaders are very much at ease in organising
students to fight for them. At the floor of the jam-packed Amphitheatre of the
Oduduwa Hall, where students converged on June 3 to deliberate on the
suspension order, the following decisions were unanimously taken. First, the
students' body outrightly rejected the suspension order, declaring it null and
void. Secondly, they decided the suspended leaders should continue to function
in their capacities as the democratically elected union leaders. Thirdly, that
a negotiating team of students should be composed which should include the
suspended students. Fourthly, that intense pressure should be mounted on the
vice-chancellor until he rescinds his decision. And lastly, that the payment of
the newly introduced charges should be stop henceforth by all students pending
the outcome of the proposed negotiation with the university authority. The
suspended leaders, Akinkunmi Olawoyin, the students' union president and a 400
level accounting student, Ekundayo Fadugba, the public relations officer and a
part III law student, Hassan Abass, speaker of the Students' Representatives
Council, who is a 400 level agriculture student and Olugbenga Adewale, chairman
of Awolowo Hall and a part IV accounting student, are still going about the
campus, publicly addressing students about the next line of action and
generally discharging their roles as students' leaders against the order of the
vice-chancellor who has barred them from publicly addressing students.
Asked what gives them the confidence to defy the suspension order, Akinkunmi
Olawoyin says: "By organising protest on May 26, we were exercising the
authority vested in us by the students' body who had given us a mandate before
they left the campus last session to defend them on the question of increment
in fees while they would be away. Very early in the morning of May 26, the day
freshers were expected on campus, students assembled in front of the Students'
Union Building (SUB) where they were reminded of the mandate they earlier gave
to us. There and then the decision was taken that in line with our last
congressional resolution of opposition to fees, we should go ahead and picket
registration centres at the various faculties in the most peaceful manner."
That day was when freshers were expected to resume, and many of them had not
arrived campus by the time the "coup" to overthrow the new fees regime was
being hatched. Returning undergraduates too were not on campus on that May 26
as they were to resume on June 2. So the students' union leaders only had a
handful of between 30 and 40 students to fall back on for the protest.
Accordingly, they marched from the SUB to the academic area, moving from one
faculty to another, addressing a coterie of fresh students who had started
paying the fees and undergoing registration exercise about the subsisting
students' opposition to the fees and the need for them to stop paying the
disputed fees. In the process of ensuring compliance with their order, the
protesters allegedly manhandled and physically assaulted many freshers, their
parents and some members of staff of the university who were registering the
students. The news soon got to Professor Makanjuola who came down from his high
rising senate building office to personally see things for himself and in the
process identified four out of the students' leaders who on the same day got
suspended from the institution for one academic session.
Undoubtedly, the students' leaders did not envisage that Makanjuola would take
that decisive action against them. So the suspension order came to them as a
rude shock. They had relied heavily on precedents in organising the protest. In
1999, the university authority attempted to hike fees and this sparked off a
two-week protest by students. Then, no student was either expelled or
suspended. Invitation of policemen to the campus was also unknown. In fact,
when the news of the suspension reached the affected students they took it as a
huge joke because, according to them, it violated the normal practice of
setting up a probe panel to investigate the activities of the students on that
day. Although at the forefront of the protest on that day, the four leaders who
were suspended were the ones the vice-chancellor, Professor Makanjuola could
physically identify when he came to the scene of the protest, leaving the
others to go unpunished.
Makanjuola had, indeed, seen the long closure of the university as one sure way
of realising his resolve to hike fees in the school. Before the school's
closure, students had taken up arms against him in protest against the hike.
The students' union executive since July last year had mounted strong campaign
against the charges. Demonstrations were held in the university as well as
outside it. The students even took their campaign to the public hearing on the
draft Autonomy Bill in Lagos on August 28, 2002.
It was in the heat of this agitation that the OAU branch of ASUU began a strike
over the slash of two steps in their salaries. As a result, the school could
not re-open for the commencement of the 2002/2003 session till the declaration
of the national strike by ASUU. This came as a relief for Makanjuola who was
already losing sleep on how to tame the students' union leaders as it gave him
a breathing space for seeking out a way out of the logjam. After calculating
that the students had been at home for almost eleven months and were now eager
to return to school, it was gathered that the vice chancellor thought that
students' union leaders would no longer be interested in pursing the battle
against the fees. But when events proved otherwise and the vice chancellor was
allegedly baffled, and in order to survive the students' onslaught he had to
take a very drastic step against them.
Speaking to the Vanguard on the rationale for suspending the students in an
exclusive interview in Ile-Ife, Makanjuola said: "The fresh students came in on
the 26 of May and we were faced with a very serious problem at the beginning
because of violent rampages by a small group of individuals led by some
students' leaders. We had to bring the police force in to assist us in
maintaining peace and security. And we also had to take strong disciplinarian
action against some of the leaders of these riots. We have suspended four
students' leaders for one academic session and we believe the action is very
much justifiable. We need to send a massage that there has to be law and order
within the university. The disgraceful episode of May 26 was observed by these
fresh students and their parents. They must have been wondering what was going
on and it was necessary to show them that we were able to exercise our
authority in this university."
Reprieve for the suspended students at this point in time is certainly not in
sight. "I'm not in a position to talk about reprieve now. We took the decision
very reluctantly. But, we had arrived at a stage where if we did not take
action, this university would have deteriorated into anarchy. No matter what
your status, there are regulations in the university and there are laws in this
land. And when both the regulations and laws are blatantly broken, we have to
take action," Makanjuola said.
The increment of charges by the university management which bred the protest
was also subjected to rigorous debate at the students' congress with many
students coming up with arguments as to why the fees are unjustifiable. On the
N1,000 which each student is expected to pay per session, students contended
that the conduct of examinations is part of the activities that make up
tuition, and that since tuition is free in accordance with the Federal
Government's policy, the charging of examination fees in the university is
illegal. Students also find the charging of N2,500 to maintain a bed space of
N90 as highly unjustifiable in a situation whereby about 12 students share a
room originally meant for four students. Also subjected to strident criticism
is the N1,000 sports levy payable by each student. Since it is only a small
number of students who participate in sporting activities, and through them,
bring glory and honour to the university, the students contend that it is the
university management that should be funding sports and should not be the
burden of the entire students. The congress also find the levying of N2,000 and
N1,000 as acceptance and registration/verification fee respectively payable by
freshmen as exploitative.
Although the students are unanimous in condemning the suspension of the four
students' union leaders, they are divided on the issue of charges. Apart from
the fact that many students, both new and stalites, have paid the new charges,
many are of the opinion that the charges are moderate and that the delivery of
qualitative education can only be guaranteed when the university management has
some money to augment the subvention from the federal government which is said
to be highly inadequate.
One of the students who spoke in favour of the payment of the charges on the
floor of the congress hall is Tunde Foloruwso, a part V agricultural extension
student. He says: "The Federal Government is not ready to make education free
we don't have to mortgage the academic session because of school fees. I
believe that the school authorities have explained the reason for the hike. But
we can negotiate with the school management for a downward review of the fees."
Scores of students who spoke with the Vanguard in Ile-Ife even count themselves
lucky for the charges which they see as modest. Mention is made of the
University of Lagos where fresh students are asked to pay a sum of between
N22,500 and N24,500 in comparison with the amount of N10,000 chargeable at OAU,
Ile-Ife for fresh students. And while old undergraduate students are charged
N4,590 at OAU, their counterparts at Unilag are made to part with between
N7,500 and N9,500.
However, the ability of Professor Roger Makanjuola to reconcile with the
students' body over the suspension of the four students' leaders will go a long
way in determining whether the disrupted 2002/2003 academic session will
undergo further disruption or not.

   

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