The Tafawa Balewa government was forced to cancel a Defence Pact with Britain in January 1962 following protests by students who saw it as infringement on the country’s sovereignty. That signalled what later became the power of the ivory tower in governance.
In the First Republic, students were actively monitoring the polity and became a strong voice that carried weight. Isaac Boro’s agitations began at the University of Nigeria Nsukka where he was president of the Students Union. There was also Emeka Enejere who took his unionism to Biafra. Also counted in the western axis was Lekan Oyedeji.
Today, Nigerian students are missing in action. They have become as quiet as Ikoyi Vaults and Gardens. It sounds like someone drowned their energy deep inside Lake Eerie. A litre of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) is sold for about 1,500 naira when the minimum wage is 70,000 naira. Cost of living has risen beyond the masses.
Our students are all quiet. I am troubled that they are busy doing worse than some of the politicians who have sworn to keep the people in perpetual servitude. It is a common sight to find vehicles with bourgeois number plates like SUG 1, SUG 01 or NANS 001. A students union president moves about with a Chief of Staff and uncountable Special Assistants and Advisers.
Today, I want our students to search for Serbia on the internet. Aleksandra Vucic, in power for donkey years, received a big blow from students who forced him to concede defeat in parliamentary elections. His Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won 103 seats while the majority of 141 went to Student List – Student Wish, a force backed by the students.
Nigerian students must begin to ask questions. Are their parents better off today than they were eleven years or three years ago? They need to find out what happened to the fuel subsidy savings. Their eyes should be on INEC and its chairman, Josh Amupitan. Without free and fair elections in 2027, the country is doomed.
Students should not allow politicians to use them to snatch ballot boxes and intimidate opponents. Those who arm cultists during and after elections must begin at home by pushing their children forward. Nigerian universities are not recruitment grounds for riggers.
Under General Olusegun Obasanjo’s dictatorship in 1978, students were not afraid to fight for their rights. They protested a slight increase in their meal subvention. The death of Akintunde Ojo at the University of Lagos only succeeded in uniting labour groups against the military.
During General Ibrahim Babangida’s absolutism, students described him as an ‘agent of imperialism.’ They took to the streets against the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1989. A year earlier, in 1988, when 2.5 kobo was added to the pump price of petrol, IBB was given sleepless nights.
Students dared Babangida. Students were never afraid of Gen. Sani Abacha. Today, the maximum military leaders are History. Democracy has not only softened activism, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is giving Nigerians nightmares.
In France, it took a May 1968 uprising at the University of Paris to push away Charles de Gaulle. The Velvet Revolution ended one – party communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. It was powered by students and the leading beneficiary was playwright, Vaclav Havel.
As larger than life Generalismo of Indonesia, President Suharto was forced to step aside by students, on May 21, 1998. His 33 years of hardship emboldened the First Lady to suppress the people through criminal kick backs. They thus corrupted her name, Tien, to Ten percent.
I ask again, where are Nigerian students? They must be feeling the heat. By the time they graduate, the loans obtained by the APC would have crippled the country. You cannot beat a man and ask him not to cry. The campuses are full of distressed students. Many of their parents have given up on change.
And that change needs to happen. The 2027 elections cannot be business as usual. Students must play an active positive role. And the best they can do for their future is to ensure that whoever wins genuinely should be allowed to lead the country. If president Bola Tinubu emerges creditably, that is the choice of the people.
At the same time, if Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) emerges victorious, there must be no INEC Magic or Judicial coup to subvert the choice of Nigerians. The race is between Tinubu and Obi for I have a strong feeling that Vice president Abubakar Atiku will eventually team up with Obi to lead the opposition.
