Says No to Attack on Student Rights

& Calls for the Immediate Restoration of the SUG

*Insists that Electricity & Water Supply is Essential Needs on Campus

By Bestman Michael

Months back, the Campaign for Students’ & Youths’ Rights (CSYR), in an earlier statement,  condemned the Lilian Salami-led  management (UNIBEN) for shutting down the university indefinitely as a result of a peaceful demonstration by students over the epileptic power supply, amidst other alarming conditions in school.

As part of its ridiculous decision, the management went further to ask students to vacate their hostels within an hour’s notice, which as we pointed is nothing but a complete violation to students’ rights as bonafide members of the university.

As if to add insult to injury, students are now being tasked to sign a compulsory Affidavit of  Undertaking to be of good conduct once they resume school. This undertaking goes further to state that students are not allowed to participate in or support any demonstration or assembly within the campuses.

This measure, for us, not only seeks to suppress students’ voices but goes further to show the tyrannical nature of the Lilian Salami administration who since assuming office have meted one attack or another on students . It is important to reiterate that the right to protest is fundamental right. The right to peaceful assembly and even association are constitutional rights that should by no way be taken away from any individual, especially within a supposedly democratic clime.

The role of the academic environment is to protect and educate students even on the need for  them to uphold these rights. It is the duty of the management to access the demands of students and meet them as a way to promote a healthier academic environment and to meet its purpose as a citadel of learning.

Unfortunately, as we speak, the student union has been proscribed. The disruption of the academic activities is unwarranted and was never because students peacefully demonstrated. It is because the management is unwilling to use its funds to address these issues. Again too, we wonder if these attacks are meted out by the Vice Chancellor as a way to suppress whatever demonstration, holds her accountable to the school or pave the way to use these attacks to conserve more than enough funds from university coffers to be so carted away as she approaches the exit door?

Still, it beats one’s imagination for the university to have said it cannot power stable electricity and water supply —considering the outrageous school, hostel, and even acceptance fees that students numbering 77,000 are forced to pay every session. Students go the extra mile to pay these insensitive fees so they don’t lose their studentship or are denied the right to write exams. This has placed students and parents in a state of psychological crisis amidst a crumbling economy. And a management’s response to students demanding for better welfare is an affidavit of undertaking never to have their voice heard nor their rights expressed? Ridiculous.

While the school has resumed and according to the management’s memo what led to the demonstrations has been addressed (water, electricity, and renovation of the hall residence), we must state that no student should be compelled to sign any draconian affidavit of undertaking.

We call on the immediate restoration of the Student Union Government that will adequately make genuine student representation in all their areas of concern.

We reiterate: Electricity is key. Water is key. And, it is key that students’ right to peaceful demonstration, assembly, and demands should by no means be violated or suppressed. Also, on no account is it the responsibility of students to fund a federal university. Have any of these outrageous hikes in fees, accumulated each session, translated to any improvement in the working and living conditions of both staff and students? The same deplorable hostel rooms and lecture halls, with little or no comfort, still exist. By extension, in a school where these things are missing, how does the management expect students to effectively study under stringent conditions, in a place where their rights are violated and constantly attacked by the management, amidst an unconducive learning and living environment that the students pay heavily for?

We once again commend the independent initiatives of the students for their peaceful demonstration, even amidst a vicious and unrelenting clampdown on student unionism by the management. However, we must add again and again that the immediate call for the restoration of the student union government is paramount, which as an organ of the student is best vested by all means to serve and defend the general interest of students and articulating their demands.

The insensitivity of approving an increase in transport shuttle buses at the period also points to why the SUG need to be installed as opposed to the interim management approved faculty heads, who do not have the electoral approval of students to represent them and rather function as stooges of the university management.

Moreover, the introduction of the deceptive student loan scheme resulted in a 100-300% increase in fees across public schools. To add, the crises in UNIBEN as with other public institutions across the country are a reflection of the underfunding of the education sector by the government. Rather than resolve the needs of the people, we find them churning out neo-liberal policies of attack on the working masses. At the same time, government officials both elected and appointed are busy granting themselves jumbo salaries, allowances and unending largesse of cash awards with wanton display of luxurious living at the expense of the wellbeing of the working masses. Capitalism is at the root of this crisis in the educational sector and indeed in the whole of the economy and in the end it will demand the organised force of both workers and poor farmers as well as the militancy of working-class youths and students to turn things around.