The
Students' Union of Lagos State University held elections into elective
positions in the students' union on 27th February, 2019. The electronic voting
system adopted for the conduct of the election malfunctioned particularly in
certain faculties during the process of voting. Then the electoral commission during
the late evening of the Election Day announced that the election would continue
the following day, in order not to subject students to uncertain security
situation if the election had continued through the night.
A
member of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), Alowonle Nurudeen (Omomewa),
contested for the office of the President of the LASU Students' Union in the
election. As a leading member of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) in LASU,
he has played active roles in the struggles in defence of the democratic rights
of students as well as decent learning conditions. In some of these roles, he
has had to confront uncompromisingly the management on certain unwholesome
policies– especially over a sexist policy of the school that subjects female
students to molestation in the hands of university guards in the name of
policing so-called indecent dressing. It should be noted that members of the
ERC in LASU have warned in advance of the ploy of the management to disqualify
Omomewa at the earliest stage of this electioneering process.
However
this ploy became manifest in another dimension, and through the Electoral
Commission that made itself a willing tool of manipulation in the hands of the
LASU's management. On 28th February, when the election was to continue based on
the promise of the commission a day earlier, the electoral body failed to go
ahead with the election. At a meeting with aspirants on that same day, the
commission cited lack of cooperation from the management, in terms of
logistical support, for the failure to go ahead with the election as earlier
announced. The commission equally reiterated to all the aspirants that the
election was inconclusive, and promised that a new date for supplementary
elections woukd be communicated soon. What the commission eventually
communicated to the studentry was a rambling opinion that painted its previous
declaration of inconclusive election as an erroneous judgment based on a
mistaken belief.
On
13th March, after students had waited fourteen days since the 17th of
February's election for a new date for a supplementary election, the commission
informed students that it would instead announce the leading candidates from
the botched election as winners for the various contested positions. It further
justified this U-turn in judgment on the realisation of the commission that the
union constitution did not make provision for a supplementary election(!).
Shamefully, the commission had reversed itself on two different occasions, and
with their justification growing weaker and desperate still.
It
should be noted that the botched election of 27th February was fraught with a
suspicious glitch, because the technical problems with the electronic voting
system was more pronounced at the Faculty of education – where Omomewa is a
student as well as some members and supporters of the ERC. The comrades had
from the beginning of the election noted this anomaly as containing indications
of a concerted effort of the management and the electoral commission to
frustrate Omomewa's share of the votes in his faculty. Every member of this commission
has betrayed the trust that their colleagues reposed in them to have nominated
them to serve on the commission. They have proved to be renegers and astute
manipulators of popular will – history will not absolve them well.
The
results from the botched election of 27th February showed an election that was
being keenly contested, and unpredictable at that. Especially because hundreds
of willing voters were yet to exercise their franchise as eligible members of
the students' union. Until the commission halted the process, the leading
candidate was emerging over the first runner-up (omomewa) with only 59 votes,
while the first runner-up was leading the second runner-up by only 59 votes,
and the second runner-up was also leading the third runner-up by 57 votes only.
If the members of the commission had been conscientious, the nature of this
close race would have endeared them to remaining steadfast with the need for a
supplementary election. Unfortunately, they yielded to the pressure of the
university management.
We
have on our hand another odious instance of management's encroachment on
independent unionism. The LASU management has a high stake in this election,
because of its visible movement lately in the direction of fee increment, which
has already taken as victim fresh intakes into the university. The comrades of
the ERC in LASU have warned students of the systematic dimension of the policy,
which is bound to affect both fresh and returning students soon enough. The
university therefore has no doubt about it, as much as the ERC too, that a
students' union under the leadership of Omomewa would resist such attempt at
increment at a time the nation's elites are resisting the clamour by workers
for a new minimum wage.
The
comrades have reiterated their intention to seek the impartial intervention of
the Election Petition Committee in the matter, and prayed in their petition for
the conduct of a supplementary election. It should be noted that the electoral
commission had already made a statement before the petition committee that the
election was still in progress (inconclusive), when some candidates had
challenged the botched election in the first week of March. However, this would
depend too on the capacity of the electoral commission to be courageous and
independent in its deliberation. It would also depend on the pressure that
could be mounted on the LASU management for it to desist from its unwholesome
tinkering with the students' union election and activities in general. This
development should start a discussion on the financial independence of the
students' union in LASU, which would prevent such logistical nightmares in the
future – the type of which the commission has complained of.
The
LASU management is notorious for its suppressive actions against both staff and
students' unions. Recently, the same LASU management suspended the payment of
check-up dues to the union of academic staff (ASUU) of the institution. This
action must have been taken to break the struggle of ASUU for payment of
certain statutory allowances that the university management is owing the staff
as well as for reinstatement of their sacked leaders. It is easy to see, behind
the action of the electoral commission, the hand of the management at work
against the interest of LASU students. Students must maintain a principled
position in the defense of their demoractic rights to freedom of association
and independent unionism. The ASUU and other staff unions in LASU must
see the grain of a struggle for independent unionism in this present
circumstance. Transparent management of schools can only be realised when
unions are independent and vibrant. The ERC calls on all staff unions in LASU
to reject this management's interference in the electoral affairs of the LASU
Students' Union.
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