The Chairman,
Constitution Drafting Committee
University of Lagos
Dear Sir,
OPEN LETTER
PROPOSED
CONSTITUTION FOR ULSU
OUR
RESERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
We are
glad by the opportunity to contribute our opinion and recommendations to the
draft constitution being proposed by the Constitution Drafting Committee for
the running of the much-awaited University of Lagos Students' Union (ULSU).
We have
perused the new constitution and have some reservations and recommendations.
Ordinarily,
we believe there was no need for writing a new constitution. A new constitution
would have been appropriate if a Students Union was to be created for the first
time. However in this case, a Students Union existed up till about ten years
ago when it was proscribed and its constitution, tradition and norms are still
very much in existence. As with all cases of proscriptions, a reversal should
logically and legally mean the restoration of the status quo ante.
To us
rewriting a new constitution is a wasteful exercise if the resources, time and
energy invested in it are considered. It also lends credence to the suspicion
that there is a conspiracy to limit the effectiveness and power of the
much-awaited Students Union through constitutional provisions that would make
it a dependent, undemocratic and bureaucratic union run by a selected few.
Having
said the above, we shall proceed from here to highlight the main provisions of
the proposed constitution that we strongly believe if not amended could pose
serious threat to collective aspirations for an independent, democratic and
mass-based ULSU.
We shall
start from the congress which we believe is the most important organ of any
union and the nature of the congress will ultimately determine the nature of
the entire union.
Article
6: ULSU CONGRESS
Section
2: Composition of the congress
"The
Congress shall comprise all the registered and matriculated students of the
University of Lagos. However, congress members whi shall have voting rights
shall be:
(a) Two
Class Representatives (across all levels including DLI)
(b)
Departmental Association Presidents and general secretaries
(c) Five
representatives each from Faculties of Law and Pharmacy
OUR
OPINION:
By
virtue of the above-quoted section, congress membership is conferred on all
"registered and matriculated students of the University of Lagos" but
they have no right to vote. This means that the mass of students of the University
will be reduced to the position of spectators while decisions that would affect
their education, career and life are taken by a few "wiseacres".
By this
section alone, the constitution has alienated the mass of students to vote on
issues discussed at the sitting of the congress limiting it only to a few
number of students referred to as the "congress Men and Women" who
"shall be inaugurated by the vice-Chancellor of the university".
This to
us in the ERC is a calculated attempt to put the congress (which should be the
highest authority of students to formulate tactics, strategies and actions to
promote and defend interests and welfare
of students and hold union leaders accountable) in the hand of the school management.
If this section is allowed to fly, it means that the management will have
control over the union which negates the principle independent unionism We
challenge this section of the constitution and urge students to agitate for its
removal from the constitution.
RECOMMENDATION:
The taste of pudding is in the eating. To effectively play the role of congress
members, all registered and matriculated students of the University of Lagos
must have speaking and voting rights at the ULSU CONGRESS. We therefore
recommend that Article 6, section 2 of the proposed constitution be amended
accordingly.
Article
2, Section 3: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
OUR
OPINION: The aims and objectives of the union stated in the constitution do not
point to vital issues affecting students on campus and in the wider society. Issues
such as the exploitation of students, injustice to students, fee hike,
education commercialisation and underfunding should be clearly stated as the
activities the union officers will challenge. More so, some of these issues
have been the major problem students are facing in the recent period and many
of these issues may still occur in the nearest future. The aims and objectives
of a responsible union should be wide and extensive enough to anticipate and
accommodate all possible developments now and in future which the union may
need to respond to.
RECOMMENDATION:
We urge the committee to accept and add the following to the aims and
objectives in the draft of the constitution:
- That the union shall defend students rights to
provision of decent hostel accommodation for all students
- That the union shall campaign against any
anti-students policies on campus such as exploitation, injustice, late or
non-release of results, victimisation, fee hike and education
commercialisation.
- That the Union shall campaign against sexual
harassment of students and uphold the right of every female student to an
academic environment free from sexism, rape and other gender-based negative
practices.
- That the Union separately and in collaboration with
other students unions, staff unions and other progressive groups shall campaign
from time to time for improvement in the funding of public education starting
from the UNESCO recommendation of 26% budgetary provision side by side with
democratic management of resources to include the elected representatives of
education workers and students
- That in accordance with our belief that Nigeria's
resources if judiciously and democratically managed can ensure the provision of
free and quality education at all levels, the union shall vigorously campaign
for the Nigerian state to provide free education at all levels.
- That also to this extent, the Union shall
separately and in collaboration with the genuine platforms of the Nigerian
people also campaign for the justiciability and implementation of all
provisions of Chapter 2 of the 1999 constitution (amended).
Article 5: ULSU LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
Section 2: Composition of the House
The House shall comprise members who shall be:
(a) two (2) non-executives and one (1) executive member from each faculty
(b) three (3) members from DLI
(c) Nine (9) members from the College of Medicine and
(d) Three (3) members from each Hall of Residence
OUR OPINION:
Our first observation is that the idea which runs through the entire
constitution that being a faculty or departmental executive or class
representative automatically confers a seat in any organ of the union is
dangerous. The mandate and requirement of faculty or departmental executives
and class representatives are obviously not the same. Someone may be a good
class representative well loved by his or her colleagues but becomes a crass
opportunist or incapable of functioning once they get to a post of
responsibility at other levels.
If this arrangement which we may liken to a "caste system" is
sustained, the kind of union that would emerge from such an arrangement would
most certainly be a bureaucratic union based not on the mass of students but on
a few bureaucrats whose qualification is not their ability to defend students'
rights.
Secondly, no clear means or process
by which the other proposed members of the House from DLI, College of Medicine
and Hall of Residence would emerge is stated. Who will select or elect them? Is
it the Vice Chancellor or the mass of Students?
RECOMMENDATION:
The "automatic" or "caste system" should be expunged
from the constitution. We recommend that all proposed members of the House be
elected. Any faculty or departmental executive or class representative who
wants to hold a seat in the house should seek a fresh mandate from students.
This is the best way to erect a solid measure of check and balance into the
union to guard against its deterioration.
Article 7: ELECTION MATTERS
Section 1 (a): "Election into the ULSU Executive Council Shall be
conducted through an Electoral College".
(f) The Electoral College shall compose of 10% of the total University
population with
- 5% equal representation from each faculty
- 5% to proportional representation bases on the population of each
faculty.
OUR OPINION: As everyone is probably aware, election is not just the most
important part of a democracy, it is its soul. Where the rights to vote are
severely curtailed, what will emerge will not be a democracy but a
dictatorship. It is a complete injustice to UNILAG students to propose a
constitution that would banish 90% of them into the status of spectators in the
running of their affairs. As bad as Nigeria's democracy is and despite the
military-imposed 1999 constitution, voting right is not restricted to this
extent.
A University is supposed to lead the rest of society onto the highroad of
progress not push it back into antiquity. Indeed is it not going to be an
absurdity that while "all registered and matriculated students of the
University of Lagos" are able to participate in general elections to elect
political office holders at the Federal, State and Local Government levels,
they are curtailed from electing leaders of their own union? Their rights to
vote is to be exercised by their own colleagues who are in all probability not
more brilliant, knowledgeable or better than them. We can go on and on. However
the last point we will like to make is that democracy by proxy is a fraud and
should not be entertained in a University of the stature of the University of
Lagos.
RECOMMENDATION: Electoral College should be scrapped. A genuine Union can
only function through direct, unrestricted democracy. We therefore propose that
all officers of the union especially members of the ULSU Executive Council be
elected by "all registered and matriculated students of the University of
Lagos".
ELIGIBILITY
SECTION 2:
(i) The candidate must have at least a 3:00 C.G.P.A to contest for any ULSU
Executive positions as shall be established by the result of the preceding
Semester.
(iii) Any candidate found guilty of misconduct in contravention of the
University rules shall not be eligible to contest.
(iv) Any person previously convicted for an offence by; or having a
criminal case pending in; any recognized court in Nigeria shall also not be
eligible to contest in the Students Union election.
OUR OPINION: To start with, nobody should have a problem with this section
which seeks to ensure that the best of students academically and morally, not
unserious students and felons, are those eligible to lead the union. However we
believe that these provisions can also be seized on indiscriminately by the
management to disqualify radical students who already have proven record of
uncompromising defense of students' rights.
For instance on the basis of subsection (i) above, people can be
deliberately failed to make them ineligible. Also using subsections (iii) and
(iv), radical students who are at the forefront of agitations against
exploitation and worsening hostel conditions can be dragged before a disciplinary
panel and declared guilty of contrived allegations. They can also be arrested,
detained and convicted on contrived charges by the Nigerian Police acting on
the recommendation of the University management.
Recently, protests broke out at some halls of residence over issues of
welfare condition. Two years ago, UNILAG was agog with mass protests against
the unilateral change of the University's name by the Federal Government. These
protests were led by students radicalised by their condition on campus. We observe
that the management could use these provisions and invite radical students
(especially those identified to be "ringleaders" in the mobilisation
for protests) to a disciplinary panel with aim of victimization. We therefore
hold that these provisions cannot help in any way to free UNILAG students from
the shackles and manacles of oppression
they have been under since the union was proscribed. We think this
provision if sustained as it is will discourage students from mobilising
against exploitations and bad welfare conditions on campus because of the fear
of disqualification from elections. This would not be a progress but
retrogression for UNILAG.
We urge committee should try and look at the experience of unions on other
campuses especially the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile - Ife to know how
managements could use provisions like the one above to cripple the union.
RECOMMENDATION
We propose that there should be no academic requirement for eligibility to
contest elections save for evidence of registration and matriculation. As much
as academic qualification is important, the paradox of Nigeria; a country whose
president is a PHD holder yet wallows in such wanton level of poverty in the
midst of inestimable oil wealth shows that leadership is not so much a function
of the appropriate CGPA or certificates.
We also propose that subsections (iii) and (iv) be amended in accordance
with our opinion expressed above.
ELECTORAL
COMMITTEE
SECTION
3
a) The Electoral Committee shall consist of the
following:
i.
Supervisor who shall be a Staff Adviser recommended by the Vice Chancellor of
the University of Lagos shall oversee the election process and announce
Election results.
ELECTION
PETITION COMMITTEE
SECTION
4
i. There shall be an
Electoral Petition Committee set up by the Dean of Students Affairs.
OUR OPINION: If these two sections are passed, ULSU will be the only union
in the University of Lagos which allows non-members in this case officials of
the University Management to organise its elections. We respectively ask the
committee, do ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT chapters operate with the same
arrangement whereby the Vice Chancellor recommends the chairman of the
electoral commission and the Dean of Students Affairs or DVC Administration
heads their Electoral petition? If students are not capable of organising their
own elections, then they would not be capable of running the union by
themselves.
However
running through this provision is the implied degenerate opinion that young
people cannot be trusted to organise themselves without crisis so older people
have to step in. The paradox of this backward opinion is that elections in the
general society are organised by elderly people. Yet this has not prevented
general elections in Nigeria since 1999 till now from being rigged by equally
elderly politicians who have vested interests. Indeed if the youth have had any
role to play in electoral violence, it is often as foot soldiers employed by
elderly people who have the means and interests to subvert democracy.
The
interest of the UNILAG management here is to maintain a grip on the means to
elect the officers of the Union so that only preferred candidates who would not
"rock the boat" would emerge.
There is
a recent example at the University of Ibadan. During the last Students Union
election, the chairman of the electoral commission was a Dr. Soola who occupies
the highly exalted position of the Deputy Registrar (Students) of the
University. After the elections, the runner-up in the Presidential race having
observed some irregularities decided to approach the Election Petition
Committee to seek redress. But unknown to him,
the same Dr. Soola, Deputy Registrar (Students) who organised the disputed
election happened to also be the
Secretary of the Election Petition Committee while the Dean of Students Affairs
Prof. Alada was the Chairman. Of course every reasonable person can easily
imagine what would the outcome of the petition. Suffice to say however that
none of the numerous of witnesses who were ready to come out to give evidence
before the commission showed up and for good reasons too: they had been
contacted by the Election Petition Commitee and threatened. We have no doubt
that it is this kind of injustice and absurdity that would also happen in
UNILAG if these sections are sustained.
RECOMMENDATION
We respectfully urge the Constitution Drafting Committee to expunge these
two sections. We also propose that members of the Electoral Committee and the
Election Petition Committee should be elected at the ULSU Legislative Council
and they must all be students.
CONCLUSION
These
are our humble submissions. We hope they would be received in good faith and
the understanding that they are motivated by the need to ensure that what is
restored is a union that can effectively discharge its duties and defend its
members.
Once
again we are grateful for the opportunity,
Thank
you
Adamu Lateef Julius Samuel
Coordinator ERC UNILAG Secretary ERC UNILAG
08032251230. 08189511758
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