Date Published: 08/31/09
National Secretariat: Head Office :
Room 142.5, Fajuyi Hall, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 162, Ipaja Road, Agbotikuyo Bus-Stop, Agege, Lagos E-mail: edurightsforall@yahoo.co.uk Tel: 07033697259, 07033775517
Free, quality education is a right, not privilege 30 August 2009
Press statement
TEN YEARS AFTER THEIR DEATH: WE REMEMBER MOSES OISAKEDE (NANS PRESIDENT 1998-1999) AND LIVINGSTONE AKWANGA (NANS MOBILISATION OFFICER 1998-1999)
On Tuesday, September 1 st 2009, it will be ten years after Moses Oisakede (NANS President 1998-1999) and Livingstone Akwanga, NANS president and mobilization officer died in a ghastly motor accident along Makurdi road while travelling to the University of Agriculture Makurdi to intervene in the political victimization of some student leaders of the University by the management of the institution. With his death 10 years ago, Nigerian students nay the Nigerian society lost a consummate and cool-headed fighter for students’ rights and social justice.
Moses Osaikede was the last radical president the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has had. Against the background of the pitiable quality of leadership NANS has had since his death, coupled with the incapability of the association to defend Nigerian students against government neo-liberal attacks on education, it is appropriate for all Nigerian students to remember this indefatigable struggler and student leader ten years after his death.
Moses Oisakede was a 28 years old part three Biochemistry student of the Edo State University Ekpoma (Now Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma). He became NANS president in December, 1998 at a period when the internal crises and ideological degeneracy that has now reached an alarming height in the student movement commenced. Due to this, he was a factional NANS president as a result of the first split that had occurred in NANS in 1994 between rightwing and ex-Stalinist factions of the student movement which led to formation of two NANS secretariats. Although Moses Oisakede emerged as NANS president from the rightwing faction of NANS, he became an exemplary student leader worth remembering today as a result of his undoubted conviction and commitment to the struggle against education commercialization, menace of campus cultism and for the reinstatement of over 200 student activists expelled from schools over union activities. It is very remarkable that he died while on an official trip to the University of Markurdi and FUT Minna to plead the cases of victimized students in both institutions. This is why we in the ERC regard him as the last radical president the NANS has had.
It is unfortunate that 10 years after, the kind of radical, militant and committed leadership which Moses Oisakade represented has continued to elude the student movement. It is much more lamentable that the NANS does not even have any program or activities to commemorate the memory of Moses Oisakede and Livingstone Akwanga as the major leaders of the association are busy compromising the interests of Nigerian students especially in regard to the on-going strike actions of ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT.
OUR CALLS:
- We in the ERC use the occasion of the 10 th year anniversary of the death of Moses Oisakede to call for the rebuilding and revitalization of NANS as a mass democratic platform committed to its original objectives of uncompromising defense of students rights to free and quality education, opposition to all government neo-liberal policies and solidarity with workers and all oppressed people in Nigeria and the world in the struggle for social liberation. These were the original objectives of NANS which have been corrupted and desecrated by the pusillanimous, right wing and pro-government rudderless leadership that the association has been afflicted with in the past one decade.
- We also use the occasion of Moses Oisakede’s 10 th year remembrance to call on the Federal government to immediately sign and implement agreement reached with ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT so that students can immediately resume academic activities.
- We condemn some lickspittles within the student movement like the NANS General Secretary Martins Igwe and NANS Senate President Smart Edward for their support for Federal government in the on-going face-off between it and the striking unions as this is not a true reflection of the opinion of student movement but a betrayal of the cause of Nigerian students. We urge all those NANS leaders, if there is any, who are still committed to the struggle for free and functional education to wake out of their slumber and organize protest, demonstrations and mass actions in support of the demands of ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT.
- We equally condemn the Student Transition Committee of the University of Ibadan (UI) for its recent call on the Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Bamiro to pull the University out of the nationwide strike actions of the staff unions. As far as we are concerned, the Student Transition Committee has no legitimacy to speak for University of Ibadan students as it is an illegally contrived contraption composed of Management “errand-boys” and “yes-men” formed as a replacement for a democratic students union.
- Be that as it may, we in the ERC warn the Management of the University of Ibadan not to be motivated by such ill-advised calls to attempt to break the on-going nationwide strike of the staff unions in U.I otherwise the ERC will not hesitate to mobilize students to resist such a move in solidarity with the striking unions. The example of how such attempts at breaking the strike in University of Lagos and Lagos State University were resisted by a combined mass of education workers and students are enough warnings to all those Vice Chancellors who are still scheming behind close-doors to break the on-going strike in their respective institutions.
- We wish to again explain that our solidarity with ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT is unshakable. This is not just because their demands are genuine and that students will benefit if the demands are met, but also because Nigerian students too are active participants in the unfolding struggle to save public education from collapse. The ERC since June 16, 2009 submitted to the Federal government and all relevant agencies and parastatals, a charter of students demands bothering on 26% funding of education, cancellation of all fees including the outrageous law school fees, payment of an annual N40, 000 Cost of Studying Allowance (COSA) to all Nigerian students, recall of victimized student activists and restoration of banned unions. Up till now, the Federal government has ignored these demands.
- This is why we have joined the struggles of the staff unions. In that case, only the resolution and particularly the meeting of the demands of all the striking unions and that of Nigerian students as contained in the charter of demands submitted on June 16, 2009 can bring an end to the current strike action and destabilization of the education sector. This is important if the Federal government is interested in sustainable peace and tranquility in the education sector.
- In conclusion, the ERC in conformity with our set objectives of defending democratic and human rights of Nigerian students and youths and showing solidarity with workers and other oppressed Nigerians hereby condemns the Nigerian Army and the Chief of Army Staff for confirming the judgment of the General Court Martial (GCM) handed out against the 27 soldiers incarcerated for protesting for their allowances. We also reject the commuttal of their sentences to 7 years. The ERC believe that personnel of the military and police force are first and foremost Nigerian citizens, they therefore have right to enjoy all the basic democratic rights set out in the 1999 constitution including the right to peacefully protest and unionize. We regard the incarceration of the 27 soldiers for protesting for their allowances and the demotion of the high ranking officers that shortchanged them by a rank each as unfair, unjust and simply unacceptable. Compared to what obtains in some advanced world where military personnel and police are unionized and also protest, the judgment passed by the GCM and the commuttal by the Military High Command is an attempt to turn soldiers and members of the police force to “zombies”. We believe that where soldiers are so suppressed for defending their rights, then no one is safe again to peacefully protest against injustice. Therefore, we in the ERC add our voice to that of other Nigerians to call for the immediate and unconditional release of the 27 soldiers with full payment of their allowance and compensation for their unjust incarceration.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto
National Coordinator
07033697259.
Chinedu Bosah
National Secretary
07033775517.
