Students’ unionism makes campuses tick. Through its activities, it draws attention to students’ needs and takes up the authorities when the need arises. Many institutions believe that students’ unionism is being taken too far these days. So, they are contemplating proscribing the unions. Their sin: protests that degenerate into violence. But students’ leaders say the authorities are the problem. OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE reports
They were shut for the same reason, though their locations are different. The University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the University of PortHarcourt (UNIPORT) were shut following students’ protests. In the UNIPORT crisis, Peter Ofuru, President of the Faculty of Management Sciences Students Association died.
In the face of these protests, the authorities are becoming worried that students’ unions wield too much power and influence. Many of them argued that it is an aberration for a students’ union to consider itself a government, which is at par with management.
The Students’ Union Activities (Control and Regulation) Act of 1989 allows students the freedom to participate in union activities. However, the law states that school managers can step in to control such activities when need be.
Section 1 (1) and (2) of the Act says: “As from the commencement of this Act, student participation in all union activities shall be voluntary, and confined to individual campuses of universities or institutions of higher learning or any other similar institutions. Nothing in this Act or any other law shall prevent any Governing Council, Vice-Chancellor or any authority or person in charge of or in control of any university, higher institution or similar institution from making regulations for the purposes of controlling student union activities within aforesaid institutions.”
Anyway, students’ union leaders are clamouring for more power, claiming their voices are not being heard enough.
At the 133rd regular meeting of the Council of Heads of Polytechnics in Nigeria and Colleges of Technology (COHEADS) held last week at the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), a major topic was how much power management should concede to student leaders.
Director of Physical Planning and Development of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Mr Ekpeyong Ekpeyong, who represented the board’s Executive Secretary, Dr Masa’udu Kazaure expressed fears that the students may eventually take over the institutions and relieve management of its responsibilities, if left unchecked.
He said: “Even in heaven, there is order. Not because somebody says I want this, then the person is entitled to it. There are entitlements at various levels and people should be allowed to go by their entitlements so that they can all help one another. There are issues on campuses that require the students’ input and they are always or most of the time carried along. Where we know they are not carried along, many times, we send panels of enquiry to check them. So if it is on general issues, what they (the students) are seeking is not acceptable. But wherever their concerns are to be, we will give them the chance.”
Counselling the institutional heads, Ekpeyong said: “If we are managers, we have to do it well. We should not allow our students to dictate to us in whatsoever way. If we allow them, they will become managers and they will turn management to beggars, while they run the institutions. It is not done in any part of the world. There are instruments we use to handle such situations in our campuses. If we allow them small power, they will take more and the result is not always favourable. Closing schools due to protests is not the best way to train. Any break during training means you have to start all over again and there is no time for that. We have our calendars fixed.”
Condemning some recent students’ protests, Special Assistant to the President on Youths and Students’ Affairs, Nasir Sa’idu Adhama blamed the students for towing the path of confrontation, ignoring consultation and consolidation.
He said: “I wish to draw our student leaders and students’ attention to the three Cs’ of Consultation, Consolidation, and Confrontation which they are familiar with. Reports so far gathered confirm poor consultation between students’ leaders and institution’s management before adopting confrontation as a solution to the plight of students on our campuses.”
The Dean, Students Affairs, UNILAG, Prof Babatunde Babawale, accused the students of wanting to establish a government within a government.
“I think like all young men and women, students who are still under tutelage need to have very limited powers on account of their age and experience in life and ought to be guided by rules and regulations and experienced staff in the universities. It is an aberration to have students describe their union as a government. They cannot have a government within a government. In other words, the idea of having a students’ union called government is tantamount to having a republic within a republic or allowing the running of a parallel government,” he said.
Students, Babawale said, should have representatives for leadership training and student representation, but they must not misuse the opportunity to achieve malicious aims.
“University administrations must put in place measures that will not rob the students of the need to exercise their fundamental human rights or their rights to experience training for leadership, but these must be severely constrained in the exercise of their powers as a union. This tendency by students’ union officials to think that they are above the law is responsible for the numerous protests that we have across the nation. The way to curb this is to let them know that first and foremost, they are in the university to learn and obtain their certificates. And that the essence of having a students’ union is to carry them along with the administration of the university so that they can have a say in the running of affairs that affect them; and to provide them with opportunities to be trained for leadership positions in future. But the moment students form a negative mentality that unionism is for intimidation, extortion, lawlessness or that it puts them above every other student, then that becomes an aberration,” he said.
To ensue peace, Babawale advised management to talk with students regularly, and encourage the good ones to take up leadership positions.
“My advice to management is that they must improve their monitoring of individuals that have access to union offices, because it appears that in a number of cases, very serious-minded students tend not to be given access into positions where they could exercise leadership role because of the politics of unionism. So we must create rooms that will encourage highflying students to be the ones that will have access to union offices. Management must also step up their regular meetings with students so they can be on top of situations. In this case, I am saying we must step up our own ability to clearly detect areas that can be exploited by those I choose to call ‘union entrepreneurs’ who are merely exploiting problems in the university to achieve selfish objectives. We must also be on top of situations that have to do with the welfare of our students always. Things don’t have to be left till too late before they are attended to.
“But more importantly, there is also the need to curtail that tendency of student leaders to think they are above everyone else. Every union president tends to want to see himself as the alternate vice chancellor. Measures must be put in place to call them to order to avoid this frequent recourse to protest, the paralysis of university and disruption of the academic calendar,” he added.
Administrators believe that if the students know about certain activities, the aims of establishing students’ unions would be peaceably fulfilled.
Lagos State University (LASU) Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof Lanre Fagbohun said such an understanding is crucial to the success of any school administration.
He said: “Students are critical stakeholders in the university. Thus, it will be an aberration, and it will not augur well for good administration if they are not included in the governance process. Students should not dictate to the management, but, must be allowed to contribute to discussions that will affect their interest before decisions are taken. Their views must be given due and sincere consideration, and thereafter, decisions can be taken. There are administrative committees in which students can serve. Don’t forget, the university is for learning (inclusive of leadership training) and culture.”
Students are fighting for more power. They argue that the lack of an effective students’ union is the cause of their friction with management.
For Tayo Sekoni, Students Union President, LASU, the students’ union should enjoy the same privileges as the school authority. However, he added that a listening management would nip any crisis in the bud.
He said: “In LASU, the students’ union has the same power with the university management because we (students) are the number one stakeholders on campus. So we have enough powers. The power is mainly used to see to the welfare of the students; to negotiate, dialogue, and fight for their rights. There are three steps in students’ unionism, the last of which is protest. Consultation and negotiation should come before making a sound of aluta (protest). I have a listening management so we have resolved issues through peaceful dialogue. But we have a relationship with ULSU (Unilag Students Union) and from our discussions, I believe they were right to go on that protest. How can we have a federal university where students don’t have light and water? That is too bad. The negligence is on the part of the university management. So I am in support of their protest.”
Taiwo Hassan, National Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), which fights for students’ rights, lamented that management hide under students’ protests to shut schools.
He said: “Students’ union activities do not often disrupt school activities. In fact, in most cases, campuses are closed following students’ protests not because the protests were violent, but because the school authorities often want to punish students by sending them home for a few weeks or months so that they would be scared of demanding their rights next time. So for me, the blame for closure of campus and disruption of academic calendar should be laid at the doorsteps of school authorities. Just look at what happened at the UNILAG. The authorities felt that since students were complaining about epileptic power supply and high cost of living on campus, they should send them to their different homes to see if there is light there also.”
Hassan debunked the claim that students’ unions wield too much power, saying they are not given enough recognition.
He said: ”I believe students do not have enough power in academic environment. Without students, there would be no VC, rector or provost. There would be no Visitor, neither would there be a pro-chancellor. But despite the important place students occupy in a school environment, they are not involved in deciding how their schools are run, what projects are prioritised and how funds are managed in the institution. Students’ representatives are not allowed in the Senate, governing councils, boards and committees, yet it is their fate that is being decided in all of these crucial decision-making organs that constitute the management of an institution.
“How can you have such an undemocratic school environment and expect peace and harmony? Without their involvement, students feel disconnected, especially because the policies rolled out from the undemocratically-constituted Senate and governing councils are often anti-poor policies that threaten their interest. My organisation, the ERC, has been agitating for years now for the full democratisation of the school environment so that elected representatives of students and staff can be in the Senate, Governing Councils and all decision-making organs so as to guarantee that funds released by government are judiciously spent and also to ensure that students interests are considered.”
The National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) also argues that students be more involved in the running of their schools.
In a paper its leaders presented at the Co-HEADS meeting, the group lamented what it called persecution by school management.
It reads: “The authorities of our institutions still deprive us of democratic Students’ Union Government, which makes meaningful consultation and effective participation in government policy-making difficult for us. Indiscriminate rustication, suspension and expulsion of student leaders still prevail, while intermittent closure of our institutions continues as a characteristic feature.”
The paper, signed by the association’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Olugbode Damola, Vice President (South West), Olaogun Yusuf, and the Chairman of NAPS Technical Education Campaign Committee, Lukman Salahudeen, argued that students participation in unionism gives them practical experience to hold public office in future.
