Thru:
The Registrar,
University of Lagos,
To:
The Vice-Chancellor,
University of Lagos
Dear Sir,
OPEN
LETTER
NOW
THAT THE DRAFT OF THE STUDENTS' UNION CONSTITUTION IS OUT
Next
Step is Conduct of Elections
Recently the management of the University of Lagos
inaugurated the Constitution Drafting Committee to draft for students of the
institution a "suitable constitution" for the students' union, which
is supposed to be a step towards the reinstatement of a Students Union on the
campus after over one decade of proscription. About two weeks after its
inauguration, the committee has drawn out a proposed constitution for the University
of Lagos Students' Union (ULSU).
First and foremost, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC)
commends the University Authorities for kick starting the process of
restoration of the Union. While we frown at the opaque and undemocratic process
of their emergence, we nonetheless commend members of the Constitution Drafting
Committee for taking up this very important task of formulating the
constitutional ground norm for the running of the much-awaited Students Union.
As you may already be aware, we of the ERC are calling for
an independent, democratic and mass-based Students Union. By this, we mean a
Students Union whose leadership is elected directly by the mass of students and
not through a so-called Electoral College and which shall be politically and financially
accountable to its members.
This is because we believe that a Students' Union is a
platform of all students to collectively defend their rights and campaign
against any anti-students policies and exploitations within and outside campus.
Unfortunately, the draft constitution proposed by the Constitution Drafting
Committee falls dreadfully short of this.
Instead of an independent, democratic and mass-based students constitution
that can seriously defend students' interests, the implication of the proposed
constitution produced by the committee is a dependent, docile, undemocratic and
bureaucratic Students Union whose officials will not be subject to the control
of the mass of students nor would they be accountable to them. As a result of
these identified shortcomings, the campaign of the ERC for an independent,
democratic and mass-based Students Union shall continue until such a time when
all the inadequacies are corrected.
However regardless of our reservations expressed above, we
believe that having drawn up a proposed constitution, half of the work that the
process of restoring a Students Union entails has already been concluded. The next decisive
step therefore should be the immediate constitution of an "Electoral
Committee" to conduct a democratic, free and fair election to usher in a
new leadership for the Students Union. We propose that the Electoral Committee
should be composed of students elected from each of the Faculties.
This is the only way to remove the doubt in the minds of
many that this is just another journey without destination as happened in 2008
when a similar process produced a constitution but till today no elections were
conducted nor any union restored.
University of Lagos has carried the ignoble tag of a
University that abhors the free expression of its students populace and their
access to the constitutional right to freedom of association for far too long.
We urge that this time around, the process should lead to the actual
restoration of a Students Union.
Yours faithfully,
Adamu
Lateef
Julius Samuel
Coordinator,
ERC UNILAG
Secretary ERC
UNILAG
08032251230 08189511758
Cc:
Dean, Division of Students Affairs,
University of Lagos,
ASUU, UNILAG
SSANU, UNILAG
NASU, UNILAG
NAAT, UNILAG
Press Club, UNILAG
All notice boards
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