The Education Rights Campaign, Obafemi Awolowo University Branch, condemns the proscription of Unilag students' union. It will be recalled that students embarked on a protest to press home their demands for better welfare (especially, with exams approaching), but got the response of a collective victimization from the management of the institution with an autocratic emergency school closure. It is paradoxical, that an institution that is supposed to teach students to solve societal problem is unable to solve the welfare problem of a relatively small university community but responds with repression and intimidation of students, and that can only mean insensitivity and irresponsibility. It is therefore necessary for us to clarify ourselves on this crisis against the blackmail and the misrepresentation of the scenario by the University Authority, so as to portray students as the cause of the crisis and to paint them and the union as miscreants to the public. From the response of the management through the Registrar of the University, it was presented that the students turned a deaf ear to the call towards resolving the crisis before it escalated; but this assertion of the management is untrue as the Students' Union had embarked on series of steps of decent communication before resorting to protests. It was this breakdown of discussions that forced students to embark on the peaceful protest. Meanwhile, it is pathetic that students have to agitate before the management can actually take up its responsibilities of providing conducive learning environment and better living conditions. Some months ago, the students also had to embark on a protest on a case of bedbugs which also led to the closure of the institution. Also recently, premedical students have had to sue the management over the attempts to exploit them and forfeit their careers. All these issues resulted to protests on the same campus, due to the hardheartedness of the management. Upon this, it is obvious that the management's aim to criminalize the protest of the students is the motive for presenting it as the reason for the proscription of the Students' Union. On this note, we wish to condemn the report of the investigative panel on the protest of the students and the recommendations of the committee of Provost and Deans constituted by the management on this matter. This action instituted by the management is absolutely undemocratic. The root cause of the protest was premised upon the fact that the management was unconcerned to the students plights. As a result the management cannot stand to be innocent in the investigation of this matter. In a situation where this holds, nothing democratic should be expected, more importantly any resolution or recommendation in this despotic committee will be centered to clamp down on the students and to impede on the students' democratic rights. Noteworthy is the fact that the Students' Union at some point was placed under undemocratic proscription by the management for nothing less than a decade before it was later restored after consistent agitation of the students. Ever since the restoration, the management of the Unilag has been exploring different ways to re-place the union under another proscription as a result of the actions of the students to always challenge the highhandedness of the authorities which obviously does serve as a threat to the genuine interest of the students. The attempt has always been modified with different ways of influencing the elections of the students' union in the past, to ensure pliable union leaders. The union till this recent proscription, is yet to be totally independent of the forces of the university management. Thus, we call for the democratization of the decision making organ of the institution comprising all the stakeholders in the university community including all academic and non- academic staff union and the democratic student representatives. Albeit all this, we advise the management that the incessant closure of the institution cannot serve as a panacea to the students' unrest, in as much the social cum material conditions which necessitate the protest remain unsolved by the management and to also desist from blackmailing the students in order to cover up its impunity. We demand that management should accede to the demands of the students if truly it is sincere in maintaining a stable academic calendar and improving the welfare condition of the students. Of course, we condemn vehemently the conditionalities set up by the management for the re-opening of the institution stating that the students should sign an undertaking form while the parents and guardians must also sign indemnity form. According to the management, this is to ensure that the students will be of good behaviour and always abide by the rules and regulation of the institution. We in the ERC maintain the stance the students have always been of good behaviour, but wherever it seems that the students violate the rules and regulations, it is the management that is always responsibly for the act, by impeding on the fundamental rights of the students and subjecting the students to grievous hardship which threatens the welfare and security of the students. Also, the acceptance of this condition by the students, the parents and guardians give students the blame of the unrest and further blackmail the struggle. We hereby advise the students also that upon resumption, frantic efforts should be made to defy (in practice and principle) the order of proscription of the students' union towards the assertion of the independence of the Students' Union. Series of organized campaign must be embarked upon by the Students' Union, to link the struggle to the proper funding of the university by the government, financial accountability and transparency of the university funds, the democratization of the decision making organ of the university including genuine students' representatives amongst others. This is the only practical way to avoid further clamp down on the students which may definitely manifest in form of the expulsion or suspension of the students leaders and other forms of victimization. . Signed: Adabale Olamide (Coordinator) O[truncated by WhatsA

But unilag students dey always protest when exams dey approach

Juz asking tho

why is nobody talking about the indemnity form?.