No To The Appointment Of Prof. Wale
Omole As Pro-Chancellor Of LAUTECH-ERC

July 15, 2013 - 17:45 — siteadmin

By Hassan Taiwo Soweto

We Demand His Arrest for Alleged Sponsoring of
The Murder of 5 Union Leaders of OAU on July
10, 1999.

The ERC strongly condemns the Osun and Oyo
States governments for appointing an alleged
murderer, Professor Wale Omole as the Pro-
Chancellor and Governing Council Chairman of
the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
(LAUTECH). This appointment is an insult to the
memory of the five Union leaders murdered in
cold blood on July 10, 1999 by cultists widely
believed to have been sponsored by Prof. Wale
Omole while he was the Vice Chancellor of the
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). We call on
the two state governments to reverse themselves
on this ignoble and embarrassing appointment.
We do not for a moment believe the duo of
Governor Aregbesola and Ajimobi are ignorant of
Prof. Wale Omole's brutal, despotic and bloodied
antecedent as a university administrator.
However assuming they have forgotten, we
would endeavour to rejig their memory.
For 8 years he was the Vice Chancellor of OAU,
Prof. Wale Omole terrorised students and staff of
the University. Not only was he ever-ready to
impose any unpopular anti-poor education
policies of the military regimes, his own brutal
tenure became a sad testament of the
militarization of an ivory tower. Wale Omole
acting the script of the military regimes saw
independent unionism, especially the buoyant,
ideological-driven and radical unionism of OAU,
as an impediment to pro-market education
policies and from early on in his tenure strove to
clip the wings of radical students and staff
unions.
The OAU students union which was very active in
the mass struggle to end military rule naturally
became a target for clampdown. This was a
period when Abacha's gun men were ravaging
the pro-democracy camp killing activists and
clamping many, including journalists, into prison
without trial. Prof. Wale Omole became more than
a willing tool, more accurately a maniacal
enthusiast, for the Abacha military regime in its
bid to snuff life out of the students wing of the
pro-democracy struggle. He banned the OAU
students union several times during his tenure.
Tens of student activists and union leaders were
summarily expelled. In 1995, Prof. Wale Omole
expelled the then President of the Students
Union, Anthony Fasayo and many other leaders
and activists of the union. For the next seven
years, OAU students continued to fight for their
reinstatement thereby suffering more
victimisation in the process.
In 1999, a radical Union leadership emerged
under the leadership of Akinyemi Iwilade (a.ka.
Afrika) who was the secretary general and Lanre
Adeleke (a.k.a Legacy) who was the president.
Under their tenure, the struggle against the anti-
poor education policies of Wale Omole's
administration and for recall of victimised
activists received a new boost. Students protests,
boycotts and demonstrations against the
management and the military regime became the
order of the day. Many anti-poor policies of the
University administration including an attempt to
increase fees were defeated. Faced with a
determined Union leadership ready to fight it to a
standstill, Wale Omole's University administration
drew a line in the sand. As suspension and
expulsion no more frightened students, Prof. Wale
Omole placed his hope on cult groups which was
then becoming a menace in the University due to
the brutal attacks on independent unionism and
their encouragement by the management.
On March 7 1999, the Students' Union led by
Secretary General of the Union Akinyemi Iwilade
(Afrika) apprehended some cultists belonging to
confraternity with arms including guns
with several rounds of ammunition. They were
interrogated by students and then handed over to
university management who transferred them to
the police. Just as it is now, Universities then
claimed to have official zero-tolerance for cultism
which includes expulsion of any known cultist.
But lo and behold, these cultists apprehended by
students were freed by a corrupt magistrate who
later became a lecturer in the university for want
of evidence even though he ordered the
destruction the evidence presented which
included the regalia and other cult
paraphernalia and the transfer of their guns to
the police armory.
No doubt this was dome in connivance with the
police and university management. While the
case was on the university management refused
to produce witness while students had been sent
home as a result of struggle for reinstatement of
victimized student activities. By the time the
University re-opened, these cultists returned to
campus and were seen walking free on campus
and even sat for examination! All protests by the
Union to Prof. Wale Omole was ignored. As far as
he was concerned, gun-wielding cultists were
more tolerable on campus than student activists.
Four months after, on July 10, the same Black
Axe confraternity whose members were
apprehended in March struck, murdering in cold
blood the Secretary General of the Union
Akinyemi Iwilade (Afrika) who led students to
apprehend them and four other students.
Curiously they freely gained entry into the
University, killed their victims and freely exited
without any hindrance! Many other union
activists including the union president who were
to be killed escaped only by whiskers. No student
or member of the University community who
witnessed the gruesome murder can ever forget
nor forgive Professor Wale Omole. Statements of
members of the University management as well
as members of the University security unit to the
police showed that the University gate was
practically thrown wide open for the cultists.
However in the days that followed July 10, OAU
students mobilised from Ife to Ibadan, Lagos etc
and succeeded in arresting a few of the cult
members. In their statements, they
acknowledged Prof. Wale Omole as their sponsor.
Today all the arrested cultists have been
discharged and acquitted by Nigeria's corrupt
judicial system. Prof. Wale Omole himself
although chased out of campus by students did
not stand trial for a day. Every year since 1999,
OAU students commemorate the July 10 killings
crying repeatedly for justice. For this reason, the
decision of the Oyo and Osun State Government
to edify an alleged murderer like Prof. Wale
Omole by appointing him pro-chancellor of a
University is not just an insult to students, it is
equally a disservice to the parents and families of
the deceased who still feel pained and wronged
by the State and its corrupt judicial system.
It is all the more disheartening that the leader of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Bola
Tinubu who was also appointed Chancellor of
LAUTECH has no qualms in sitting with a known
persecutor of Pro-democracy activists like Prof.
Wale Omole in the University administration.
Where then, we ask, is Bola Tinubu's democratic
credentials and his alleged claim of being a pro-
democracy fighter during the dark days of
military despotism?
We are sure that there are a lot of credible
individuals who could be appointed as the pro-
chancellor of LAUTECH. Prof. Wale Omole is
certainly not fit for such office nor any credible
public office at all. There is nothing students and
staff of LAUTECH can benefit from his
appointment as Pro-Chancellor except a
continuation of his anti-poor education policies
and brutalities for which he was driven from OAU
in 1999. Rather he should be placed on trial to
answer for his roles in the July 10 murder.
We call on LAUTECH and OAU students to
protest this appointment. We call on the National
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to
publicly reject the appointment and organise
protests and demonstrations to compel the Oyo
and Osun state governments to reverse the
appointment.
Most importantly, this whole scenario again
justifies ERC's persistent call for the
democratisation of Universities which should
include giving students and staff of every tertiary
institutions the right to decide through a
democratic vote appointments into any official
position of their schools. Without this, one can
only imagine what kind of ignoble characters
would be smuggled into the administration of our
tertiary institutions and educational system in the
future.
________________________
Hassan Taiwo Soweto
National Coordinator

mobile.saharareporters.com/press-release/press-statement-no-appointment-prof-wale-omole-pro-chancellor-lautech-erc

Justice is what Nigeria would always seek

This never ends this never halts , the struggle never sets ,like the sun it keeps rising ,and like dirts no matter how deep you bury the stinck always finds his way up, aluta continua!!

Soweto!

It is unreasonable for the two governors of oyo and osun to appoint someone with a tainted image like prof wale omole as chairman, governing council of LAUTECH.

Wale Omole was indicted by the committee setup to look into the July 10 massacre @ OAU and was even removed from office due to his involvement in the saga then.

Ladokites (Lautech students) would not rest until this decision is reversed.

Also, the National Association of Nigerian Students NANS, should come to our aid and join us in this struggle.

We also implore fellow comrades from all instititutions in Nigeria to join our cause.

We say no to illegality,

We say no to the appointment of Prof Wale Omole as Chairman, Governing Council, Lautech.

Aluta Continua,

Victoria Asata,

Amala Awetu