Press Statement - Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife

STUDENTS’ UNION. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
October 14, 2007
Press Statement:

Release Akinola Saburi, Dairo Olatunde and Taiwo Hassan Now!!

The students' union of Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU) Ile-Ife condemn in absolute terms, the abduction of two union leaders - Dairo Olatunde (public relations officer) and Hassan Taiwo Hussein (National Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign, ERC) for unjustified reasons. They were abducted at Sport Centre of the OAU while leaving the campus. According to information, they were seriously beaten up and forced into a station wagon car by the men suspected to be members of State Security Service (SSS) and the university's security unit called crackers at the instance of the vice chancellor, Prof. Michael Oladimeji Faborode. We do not know their destination till now.

Furthermore, we condemn the unwholesome closure of the university by the OAU management on a frivolous excuse of giving students "a mid semester break". To further show the intolerant and high-handedness of the Prof. Faborode-led management, heavily armed mobile policemen were drafted to the campus to chase out innocent students after forcing them to abdicate their academic works for no just reason.

The university was suddenly closed down on the night of Wednesday, 10th October, 2007 while students were asked to leave the campus within less than fifteen (15) hours. Students held a congress on the morning of Thursday, 11th October at Awolowo hall and collectively rejected the school closure on the basis that they are not animals who will be forced out of the campus at the whims and caprices of the vice chancellor without due regard to their wishes. Students also questioned the sincerity of the management which refused to grant just one week compulsory lecture free week in February (and rather preferred to close down the campus indefinitely) but is now giving a Greek gift of about two weeks mid-semester break! Yet, it is the same management that will be blackmailing the union leadership of trying to disrupt the academic calendar. We also condemn the closure on the basis that it will cause disruption of the calendar which will lead to mass failure as was witnessed last semester. Consequently, students embarked on peaceful protest to drive home their demand for a review of the closure on Thursday, October 11, 2007. Rather than heed to the request of the students, the Prof. Faborode-led management brought in mobile police men to attack students. This has led to attack on students especially the female students who were in the hall of residence as at the time the police came to campus. According to reports, the students, especially the female students were beaten by the mobile policemen. We are still collating names of those affected.

It is also at this point that Dairo Olatunde and Hassan Taiwo were arrested. We view their arrest as an attempt to stiffen progressive voices on the campus as against the reactionary rulership of Prof. Faborode-ed management. It is worthy of note to state that since the beginning of Prof. Faborode regime, the university has not known peace. In the last six months, three union leaders who are critical of the management style have been arrested/abducted by the management while other leaders are being witch hunted. Also, within the same six months, the campus has been closed down three times while over N20 million has been used to attack the students' union and its leadership. The welfare conditions of students have never been so bad as water is not constant (and not potable) while electricity supply has been erratic, yet hundreds of million was collected from students by the Faborode's administration.

The arrest of Dairo and Hassan to us is an attempt to stop the students from solidarising with their leader, Akinola Saburi who has been illegally arrested by SSS men and whose case is coming up on Monday, 15th October, 2007 at Osogbo High Court. This to us is a violation of Section 40 of the Nigerian constitution and Section 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 which guarantee freedom of expression and association. We therefore condemn the role of the Nigerian police and the SSS for being tools of oppressing Nigerian students. Unlike what the university management wants the whole world to believe that the students' union is causing crisis, it is the management, in connivance with the security agencies - SSS and the Osun State Police Command that has been precipitating crisis in order to attack the union and its leaders.

We see the current attack on the union as a reflection of the undemocratic nature of running our ivory towers and the deliberate under funding of education by the neo-liberal Yar'Adua's government. This is further confirmed by the deliberate criminal silence of the federal government on the OAU crisis while the apparatus of government especially the police and the SSS are being used to intimidate students' leaders who have been at the forefront of the agitation for proper funding of education and egalitarian Nigerian economy; and yet we are made to believe that Nigeria is a democratic state.

Consequently, we demand:
1. Immediate release of Akinola Saburi (OAU students' union president), Dairo Olatunde (Pubic Relations Officer) and Hassan Taiwo Hussein(Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign) and end to culture of victimization. We also demand for N100 million damages for them by the SSS for this illegal arrest.
2. Immediate reopening of the university
3. Immediate removal of the vice chancellor, Prof. Michael Oladimeji Faborode and his kitchen cabinet for high-handedness and gross mismanagement. This is necessary in order to avoid further crisis.
4. Immediate probe of the Prof. Faborode-led management by a democratic committee and arraignment of its officers if found guilty.
5. Improvement in the welfare conditions of students including provision of constant power supply, potable water supply, enough lecture rooms and hostel facilities, etc.
6. End to education commercialization and privatization. For massive funding of education by at least 26 percent of the budget as prescribed by UNESCO.
7. Democratic running of the education sector at all levels to include representatives of ASUU, NASU, ASUP, NUT, SSANU, COEASU, students' unions, etc.

Finally, we enjoin the general public to ignore all propaganda of the university management while we also call on labour and civil society organisations to prevail on the government to take action. OAU students are known to be non-destructive even at the point of the worst provocation; we shall not renege on this principle but we shall not stop in fighting oppression and misuse of power by people like Prof. Faborode. We wish to end by saying that if anything untoward should happen to Akinola Saburi, Dairo Olatunde and Hassan Taiwo Hussein, we shall hold the university management, the Nigerian police and the SSS responsible.

In the struggle for independent unionism, properly-funded, democratically-run education system, nationalization of the Nigerian economy, we shall remain undaunted.

* Signed Ogumah Segun Andrew, Speaker. Oyedeji Nurudeen, Clerk

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org