Being
the speech of Comrade H.T Soweto, the National Coordinator of the Education
Rights Campaign (ERC) presented on his behalf by Comrade Michael Ogundele, the
National Secretary of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), at a public
symposium held today 10 July 2015 at the Awolowo hall Café of the Obafemi
Awolowo University (OAU) Ile – Ife as part of the activities organized by the
University’s Students Union to commemorate this year’s anniversary of the July
10, 1999 cult attacks.
16 YEARS
SINCE JULY 10: AFRIKA’S STRUGGLE REMAIN UNFINISHED
Great Ife!
To start
with, I must say thank you for the invitation.
Today is
16 years since the brutal massacre of five (5) young men by members of the
Neo-Black movement popularly called Black Axe. They are Yemi Ajiteru, Eviano
Ekelemu, Tunde Oke, Yemi Iwilade Afrika and Efe Ekede.
Again
today, just as we have done for each of these 16 years, we remember our
compatriots whose lives and dreams were brutally cut short. Again, we remember
the cries and wails, the tears and sorrow of families and friends.
One of
them was Akinyemi Iwilade popularly called Afrika who was the then fiery
Secretary General of the Students Union. Without doubt, the administration of
Prof Wale Omole who was the then despotic Vice Chancellor of the University had
a hand in their death. Before their death, they were active in leading fellow
students in struggle against both government and University administration’s
anti-poor education policies.
Afrika
was killed because of his activism, because of his defense of students’
interest; because of his struggle against high school fees and victimization of
student leaders; because of struggle against campus cultism; by and large,
because of his radical belief that a better education system and a better
Nigeria was possible.
The OAU
5 were killed because by 1999, OAU students radicalized by years of intense
struggle against military dictatorship and their minions masquerading as
University administrators had become so fearless of suspension and expulsion,
detention and imprisonment so much that only the spilling of their blood in one
brutal massacre could, in the thinking of the masterminds of July 10, break their
will.
Unfortunately
for those who planned the killings, they underestimated the deep political
consciousness of students and their tradition of struggle. They also
underestimated or possibly did not even consider the public support from the
labour movement, the entire student movement, civil society and the general
public that students would get in the aftermath of the killings. In the
aftermath, the July 10 killings became a national issue and in the words of
Yemi Iwilade Afrika’s father “the first test of democracy”.
So
instead of breaking their will, Great Ife students used the killings as a
launch pad to defeat cultism on the campus and to send into the dustbin of
history, the despotic Prof. Wale Omole administration which was allegedly
behind the attack. Infact, students mobilized as far as Lagos and Benin in Edo
State to apprehend the cultists who had fled the town of Ile – Ife once the
deed was done.
In a
way, the fact that students apprehended most of the perpetrators of the attack
few days after July 10 is on the one hand a testament to the highly organized
nature and politically mature character of the OAU Students Union and its
members then. On the other hand however, it is an indictment of the Nigerian
Police Force which despite the numbers of high profile political assassinations
that have occurred since 1999 have often been unable to make any arrest and
where they were able to make any arrest have often engaged in shoddy
prosecution which eventually ensures that justice is never served. Such was the
public outcry generated by the killings and especially the vigorous campaign
led by the OAU Students Union over the attacks that the Obasanjo capitalist
government was compelled to set up a judicial commission of inquiry which even
if it eventually failed to serve justice allowed irrefutable facts of the
connection and culpability of the Prof. Wale Omole’s administration to be
exposed to the public.
I advise
all students in this gathering to try and study the rich history of the union.
You will find out that the union bequeathed to your generation today was fought
for and built with the sweat and blood of many young men and women like Yemi
Iwilade Afrika. And you will also find out that the generation of Yemi Iwilade
Afrika and the generations before him were able to accomplish all those great
feats you have heard about not because they were giants with big muscles but
because they were activists with radical ideologies. I wish to emphasize this
point because of the trend now prevalent in the student movement where the new
generation having heard of the great exploits of former activists simply copy
something symbolic about them without trying to emulate their ideas. So as a
consequence today we have many newly-minted student activists sporting fine
African traditional attires and a crest of hair in attempts to be the new
Afrika.
But Yemi
Iwilade Afrika was more than that. His crest of hair and the African dress that
often draped his diminutive figure were, as a Pan Afrikanist, fervent
expressions of his ideological identification with Africa’s history and culture
and defiant opposition to Western Imperialism and all the evils of injustice,
oppression, exploitation and underdevelopment it has brought to the continent.
He believed, as most Pan-Afrikanists do, that colonialism and imperialism were
responsible for Africa’s backwardness and that Africans should unite to define
a path for their own economic and political liberation. Even though Yemi
Iwilade Afrika’s ideology suffered some deficiencies especially because it did
not investigate the class-basis of oppression and backwardness in Africa which
is not merely a result of imperialism but also has a lot to do with the system
of capitalism supported by African ruling elites, yet it provided a framework
for him to lead the Students Union at one of the most trying times in its
history. Given the evolution of his thought and ideas and close association
with members of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), perhaps if he had
lived a bit longer, Yemi Iwilade Afrika might have been able to come to genuine
socialist and Marxist conclusions.
However
whatever the deficiencies were, there was no doubt that Yemi Iwilade Afrika
yearned for a society free from oppression and injustice. Today, none of these
dreams and aspirations has been fulfilled. Indeed the economic and political
conditions in Nigeria and much of Africa have gone from bad to worse compared
to 1999. Nigeria – a country rich in enormous human and natural resources –
continues to present an embarrassing picture of monumental failure. As
statistics show, there were 17 million illiterate adults in Nigeria than there
were in 1991, an increase of 71%! By 2014, the number of illiterate adults in
the country had reached 40 million. At present, over 10.5 million school-age
children are out of school while 6 million, out of the 36 million girls out of
school globally, are from Nigeria. Not only does Nigeria have one of the worst
education systems in the world, it is also one of the worst places to live. Economically,
vast majority of people are wallowing in poverty in the midst of plenty while
just a tiny 1% of the population benefit from the massive wealth of the
country. Africa present almost the same terrible picture as most of the
continent remain enmeshed in violent wars and associated humanitarian crises,
political instability, sickness and diseases, poverty, deprivations and mass
misery all leading to a spike in the number of people emigrating out of the
continent through the desert and the Mediterranean sea.
Great
Ife, tears will not be sufficient to mourn them. We have shed enough tears
since 1999. Our tear ducts are dry. The only way to mourn Yemi Iwilade Afrika
and four (4) others is to actively take up their unfinished struggles - that is
the struggle for a better education sector and a better society.
That can
only be done when we rise up in our thousands in struggle against fee hike and
all neo-liberal attacks on education. Against the background of the ideological
collapse of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), radical
unions like the OAU Students Union can blaze the trail for the building of an
alternative fighting national students platform by launching, in collaboration
with other radical unions and organisations, a national campaign against
education underfunding and
commercialisation. This kind of national struggle is very urgent given
the economic crisis the country is experiencing and the possibility that the
Buhari government can use the excuse of financial crisis to introduce austerity
measures in the education sector. If the OAU Students Union is willing to toe
the path of national struggle, I assure you that you will have the unalloyed
support, collaboration and solidarity of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC).
However
for us to completely rid society of poverty in the midst of plenty which
ultimately was the Pan Afrikanist dream of Yemi Iwilade Afrika, a social
revolution will be necessary to put an end to capitalism in Nigeria and Africa.
In the end, only a socialist Nigeria and a Confederation of Socialist Africa
linking up with a Socialist world can save humanity in every corner of the
globe. To this end, I am happy to inform you that the socialist organization to
which I belong – the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) - has taken a lead in
this process by forming the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) and campaigning
that the wider labour movement should build new workers political party that
can lead the movement to rescue Nigeria from the brink.
In
conclusion, let me once again thank the Students Union for inviting me. I
cannot conclude without also congratulating you for the successful struggle to
reinstate the five (5) victimized activists of the union. I thank the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for playing active role in the reinstatement
struggle. However it is not over until it is entirely over. Olawale Owolabi
a.k.a Ogunruku remains victimized. I urge all students to use the occasion of
the remembrance of Yemi Iwilade Afrika and four (4) other victims of July 10 to
call on the University administration to recall him. Please remember that an
injury to one is an injury to all.
Aluta Continua! Victoria Ascerta!!!
Hassan
Taiwo Soweto
National Coordinator
No comments:
Post a Comment