BETTER WELFARE CONDITION OR STABLE ACADEMIC CALENDAR?
After the university management callously sent students home for 40 days, most students have been wondering whether it is sensible to still continue in the struggle for a better welfare condition at the expense of a stable academic calendar. It is therefore imperative to give it a critical analysis. Such feelings, I mean the feelings of complacency or despair are quite expected after a popular cause was strangulated by both a vicious management and reactionary Union leadership. Of course! When students are just coming back from home, after a-40 day break forced on them, especially when such break coincide with the yuletide, we should not expect less.
We must not be too quick to assert our position on this very critical question. We must first digest the real cause of welfare condition and unstable academic calendar. Funny enough the problem of students’ poor welfare condition and unstable academic calendar have the same cause – the unscrupulous attitude of the university management and the negligence of the education sector by the federal government! While it is understandable that the root cause of these problems, as well as myriads of other problems battling this nation is in the brutal system of capitalism that continue to make the ruling elite richer at the expense of the struggling proletarians. The university management and the ‘big belies’ in the government are products of this oppressive system. To expect less from unscrupulous elements is to stupidly dwell in a world of illusion. It should be noted that even after the much needed departure of the vice chancellor and other corrupt officers of the university management, it still does not imply the end of our calamity, as other oppressors will emerge. It is safe to assert that the university management in the bid to cover up their corrupt practices are the real cause of unstable academic calendar, the last school closure shows this with absolute clarity.
Some students have been made to believe that protest of students is the cause of unstable academic calendar. It then becomes important to ask what is the cause of students protest? Karl Marx, the greatest thinker of the 20th century, once said that social consciousness, thoughts and ideas are products of social being, that is, real life circumstances of interaction of man with man. This position is evident in the Students’ protest of November 2015, which was not instigated by mere rhetoric or chemical malfunctioning in the brain of Great Ife students. There was no way a situation of complete blackout and erratic supply of water would not generate reaction if it lasts for a day – talk less much of lasting for several days without the readiness of the authority to take action. After all students are not animals – In fact, George Orwell confirms in his popular novel, “Animal Farm”, that animals would react to unpleasant conditions. The cause of students’ protest is however due to the unacceptable living and learning condition of students coupled with the obnoxiously increased fees paid by students and the oppressive character of the university management. In as much as the conditions that necessitated the protest of students are still in existence, then it becomes apparent that we will still experience protests, unrest, instigation in the coming period – irrespective of the name the authority gives the reaction of students to horrendous conditions.
An effect will always have a cause! To solve a problem one must tackle the cause, if the university management is interested in solving the so-called unrest of students, they should eliminate the cause of this unrest, instead of repressing dissenters. If victimisation of activists or students’ leaders would stop protests or students’ unrest, then OAU students would have stopped standing against injustice and oppression a long time ago, especially after the suspension of Anthony Fashayo. But here in OAU, we have brilliant youths who understand that silence is the needed fertiliser to make suffering thrive.
Having understood that the cause of the horrific living and learning condition of students and the unstable academic calendar is the university management. It is also necessary to understand why the question of whether students should abandon the struggle for better welfare condition for a stable academic calendar is critical and important. Every generation, they say, out of relative obscurity discovers its mission, either such mission is been fulfilled or betrayed depends on them. It is a known fact that most of the things we enjoy on campus – peace, freedom, lecture free week etc., including the fact that the school is still accessible to most of us in terms of the amount paid as school fees, though outrageous. One must remember the heroic days of IWILADE AFRIKA, whose decision to ensure that OAU campus is peaceful and non-violent cost him his life, a peace we still enjoy till now. The generation of 1999 students that stood against the unjust increment of fees from N500 to N10,500, we still enjoy the bold decision of that generation today. What about the generation of the ‘ALI MUST GO’ national struggle of 1978, there are countless stories of how different generations of OAU students made bold decisions to stand against oppression and exploitation. The year 1983- 1985 when Lanre Arogundade a former secretary-general of the students’ union and then president of NANS led countless struggle against the oppressive military regime, the days of Adeola Soetan are still unforgettable. The present generation of students that enjoy lecture free week are grateful to the 2007 generation of students under the leadership of Akinola Saburi. These, no doubt are generations that took bold decisions to show that authorities can be defeated. A decision not to betray their missions, a bold decision not to jettison the fate of the future generations because of personal interests or eagerness to graduate from the university. A decision not to concede the struggle to the masters of falsehood but to hand the spotless banner of struggle down to the future generation. Our generation must not throw the spotless banner that was sustained by the blood and sweat of our heroes away.
The struggle against poor welfare condition is a fight against exploitation, oppression and victimisation; a fight against ‘Omoleism’. It is a fight for freedom! If one posits that the struggle should be abandoned for a stable academic calendar is to embrace silence, then it is tantamount to embracing slavery. I am not an advocate for an unstable academic calendar but an advocate for a stable academic calendar, which is the reason why students must understand that unstable academic is a product of the callousness and greed of the university management. And it must be opposed.
The question whether the fight for a better welfare condition should be abandon for a stable academic calendar is to ask whether we should forsake freedom for slavery! Conceding to stable academic calendar is a trick of the university management. The university management are the real cause of unstable academic and thus want students to yearn for a stable academic calendar in order to rob students of their fundamental rights. We must not be fooled!
It should be noted that a stable academic calendar is possible only if the demands of students are met. If authorities close down the school because of students protest, then it becomes apparent that it is only when the university management concede to our demands that we can have a stable academic calendar. We should not forsake the future for our personal interest, just as our past heroes did not forsake our present for their own greed.
OUR DEMANDS ARE NOT OUTRAGEOUS
The demand for a better living and learning condition is not outrageous. In fact, in ideal societies, such demands should not even be demands, but rather the basic rights of students. Learning should not be made a crime! If one write a story on the lamentable condition of the hostels and lecture theatres such story will have no difficulty hitting top on the genre of tragic stories. The state of the school facilities – library, laboratories etc – are pitiable.
The unjust suspension of Olawale Owolabi OGUNRUKU, a student of the faculty of education that was placed under suspension since 2011 is condemnable, the university management stab common sense in the head by suspending a student for participating in a struggle (2011 anti-acceptance fee hike struggle). It is necessary to add that it was the same management that obnoxiously increased the acceptance fee from N2, 000 to N20, 000 that suspended a student for saying no to such irrational increment!
The ‘Tale Omole led administration should not be scared of being transparently probed. If one has nothing to hide one should have nothing to fear. Since the Vice-Chancellor has little or no financial contribution to the treasury of the school, then every tax-payer and school fees payers have the moral and legal right to demand explanations on how the funds are spent. Overpriced and white-elephant projects that are widespread on campus – for instance, the N500 million swimming pool – are grounds that should definitely arouse suspicion of a thinking human being. It should be a normal thing for every public office holder to be probed.
The demands, in better words, rights of the students should be met; we are not animals. I have heard FELA speak of animals putting on suits and even ‘agbada’, but that is just a qualification, a nice adjective I must say, meant for people that have no regard for human rights. The university management should give to us what is rightfully ours!
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
It is only reasonable for the leadership of the Students’ Union to have come out with information on the progress of a struggle that was initiated from a Congress of students. Their silence has not only affected the Union, but it is also digging a deep grave for the leadership who would be isolated and dealt with if they flee from students. Great Ife students are not selfish, vicious people who would turn their back on their representatives; it is only hoped that these representatives do not turn their back on students and themselves in particular. If there is any other period for a Congress of students to be convened, it is at this point, when students have to rescue their Union from the grip of the University authority. FOR A CONGRESS OF STUDENTS NOW!
ALUTA CONTINUA! VICTORIA ASCERTA...
MICHAEL LENI