WHY IS THE UNIVERSITY AUTHORITY SCARED OF A RADICAL AND VIBRANT UNIONISM?

WHY IS THE UNIVERSITY AUTHORITY SCARED OF A RADICAL AND VIBRANT UNIONISM?

When we talk about radical, vibrant and mass-bassed unionism in Obafemi Awolowo University, it should be noted that it must not be limited to the Great Ife Students' Union alone, but also ASUU, JAC (NASU, SSNAU, NAAT). It was during these glorious years, when there was a very large number of ideologues as members of the union and also occupying key positions in these unions that the University was widely regarded as 'Great Ife'.

Unfortunately in our generation, we have members of ASUU who are only interested in political appointments and thus have betrayed the mandate the forefathers of OAU ASUU is known for. Likewise in the Students' Union too, we have a number of students who believe that germane issues do not concern them, we have students that believe romancing with the school management to get their parochial interests granted at the expense of the general interests of others.

The degeneracy in the consciousness in these unions is directly proportional to the rising spate of cultism on campus, the lost accreditation in some faculties including the Vice Chancellor's Faculty, the accommodation policy that has thrown over 70% of students to town and exploitations on campus etc. While the question is who is to be blamed for the aforementioned calamities, students must understand that issues like these are not unexpected in any university because the interest of the University Authority and that of Workers/Students are never the same. In that case, radical, vibrant, ideologically guided, foresighted and mass-bassed unions would have campaigned against these anomalies long before they explode.

Some weeks ago, a news of the University Security Unit handing over some suspected cult boys to the Police force was everywhere on campus. Since then,  the University Security Unit and the Division of Students' Affairs have failed to issue a release explaining to students all that happened, the need for students to shun and expose cultism on campus and also the University's position on the issue. However, during the case of OAU5, the University Security Unit immediately released a memorandum after about 3hours of their illegal arrest and also mobilized workers to Ife High Court the following day in other for these innocent souls to be sent to jail.  Noteworthy is the fact,  that the Division of Students' Affairs didn't even orientate fresh students of this particular academic session on cultism but at  every opportunity during and after the orientation programme would always attack ideological organizations whose aim is to see that we have a sane University system amongst many other clear aims. Currently, we have an information about the abduction of a part one female student on campus by unknown elements who claimed the girl was putting a particular colour that belongs to a particular cult group despite the arrest of some cult boys weeks ago.

There is no gain saying that the ideological clear headedness of the Union President and also the radical mood  that was on campus helped in chasing and campaigning against cultism which led to the eradication of cultism in 1999 when members of Black Axe Confraternity came to attack students. The University has forgotten that it is only when we have a radical,  vibrant and ideologically guided Students' Union that we can have passive or dead Cultism on campus and not the Military like style of ruling the University that can curb cultism. In fact, research has it that, Great Ife Students' Union is the only Students' Union in the Country that still campaigns against cultism and it's only because of her glorious history against cultism which the University in fact is helping to fade away.

Since the news of the lost accreditation of the faculties and departments came on board, the University has also kept quiet on reasons for the sudden development. Left to some of us, the reason can't be far fetched, which is mainly due to lack of necessary facilities that will aid in producing 21st century graduates which can further be traced to the poor funding of Education sector.

Come next session, the University will put the burden of blame for the lost accreditation on poor students and their parents, and surely increase fees and hundreds of innocent indigent students will be forced out of campus. As we heard sometimes last session when the rumor of fee hike in the college was popular on campus, the University Authority agreed to the fact that the college is under funded but instead of encouraging radical and vibrant Unionism that will demand the proper funding of the education sector; the university came out to say, parents (that are being paid half salaries of their meagre minimum wage) should contribute money to fund the College of Health Sciences.

At this point, students must understand that in any institution where a responsible, vibrant, ideologically guided union is not present, issues like cultism, fee hike and all other issues will always come up.

Of course, the university has successfully misinformed students about the need for a radical union, and will compare the Obafemi Awolowo University to other campuses, that in other campuses there is no radical union and there is smooth running of the university. But the fact is that in other campuses, isssues more pertinent than what we have in Obafemi Awolowo University affects them, but the University Authorities in these schools have successfully silenced their journalists, unions and all other platforms that can expose these crisis which the Authority of Obafemi Awolowo University is hell bent on doing now.

Students must rise and begin to demand the recognition of radical, vibrant, responsible, ideologically guided Unions on campus as it is the only platform students can come together to demand the immediate halt to the crisis on campus.

Alawode Afolabi (Afoo Revo) is a member of Alliance of Nigerian Students against NeoLiberal Attacks (ANSA). He is also a penultimate year student of the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University

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