By Dahood Kolawole Mandela
The archive of history is a blessing to my learning and memory. It serves me well in a deep study of Unionism in Nigeria and its effects on national issues and particularly national consciousness. It grieves my heart that the picture of unionism in the heyday is no longer hung anywhere on Nigeria-campus. If I should be sincere to this claim then the page of history must be opened to all for critical perusal. To do so, I need to make a good companion to a trip to the past. When the voices of the abuzz students were not only heard but the cadence logicalities which were the mental productions met the hearts of the oppressors’ bright minds had the directions and they drove in the paths.
These students wore tripartite appearances in the then society; firstly, they were social vegetables that grew on the fertile soil of the few available London-Nigeria campuses. They were political trumpets that sounded the necessities for decolonization in the hellish days of colonization. And they were of course cultural transmitters. They painted the world with African cultures and injected the European unconscious minds with consciousness of Africa’s aesthetic values. In 1924, Ladipo Solanke wrote to “West Africa”, one of the leading Magazines in London to complain about an article in the “Evening News”, which had claimed that cannibalism and black magic had been common in Nigeria. The foundation of unionism was laid in London when the West African Sudents’ Union (WASU) was founded on August 7 1925 in London, by a group of twenty one law students led by Ladipo Solanke and Herbert Bankole Bright. WASU was an association of London-based students from West African countries with the purpose of promoting political research and uniting West Africans overseas. The main aim of WASU was to fight for the independence of West African countries and to put an end to racial discrimination which as at then climbing its peak. It was crystal clear that the young and bright minds had the directions and they did not appear as the docile metallic horses.
Unarguably, the original political party with national outlook that would raise the indefatigable and unflagging nationalists in the country was an offshoot of Lagos Youth Movement. These young minds with their boisterous youthfulness displaced the existing Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP). This single action proved their social relevance and painted them as brain boxes or think tanks for the entire nation. The undisturbed conscious youths of Lagos cut across all tribes in Nigeria reflected the kind of Education they received in Nigeria, London and America. The October 1938 Election into the Lagos Town Council witnessed the flock of vibrant, cerebral, indefatigable, assertive, logical, knowledgeable and experienced youth: Nnamdi Azikiwe, 33,Obafemi Awolowo, 29,H.O Davies, 33,Samuel Akintayo, 40, Eyo Ita, 34, Ernest Sissei Ikoli,45,etc.
It was obvious that they were not the weapon of mass destruction in the hands of unscrupulous politicians. They were rather the deciders of nation’s destiny and destination. Their philosophies were unadulterated. Their orientations were undiluted. Their unalloyed drive of responsibility had driven the country this far. Materialism as a philosophy rules the minds of the youths but it was not allowed to becloud their sense of rationality. Ugh……… No wonder a young man of thirty, Anthony Enahoro had the effrontery or temerity to move a motion in 1953 for the independence of Nigeria in 1956.To avoid logorrhea or verbiage in this artful piece I will be quick enough in making my point.
The Nigerian students or youth reflected excellence in all spheres. Simultaneously with their active participation in politics they also excelled in education. The reading culture was at its zenith and creative writings had no limit. This claim was proven in 1958 when Chinua Achebe, 28, drew the attention of the world’s literati to the black nation, Nigeria with his maiden novel, Things Fall Apart. After The Inventions which was staged in 1957, The Swamp Dwellers (1958) and The Lion And Jewel (1959) Wole Soyinka’s dexterity became noticeable to several members of London’s Royal Court Theatre. Then he was seen as the greatest playwright from the continent, Africa just at age 24.It is pertinent to state here categorically that this piece is not a product of torpidity or otiose. It should be noted that idleness or faineance makes no drive for this write up. It is the needful and not hebetude or mere unemployment rest that spurred the worded wordings. It is the belief that, “if nothing is done about anything, then, things will remain the way they are.” I feel many times that students’ unionism in Nigeria died about thirty-eight years ago with “Ali Must Go” struggle and untoward ban on National Union of Nigerian Students(NUNS). The Shagari-led administration lifted the ban in 1980 and it birthed the new students’ body: National Association of Nigeria Students. Sincerely, it was never the original. It has always been a pure phony, bogus and ersatz representation of the banned unionism.
It has to be digested easily that the same government was allegedly corrupt at that material time. Hence, it could be presumed that the tree of NANS was planted on the malignant soil of corruption. The seeds of the tree should not be a problem to these readers to guesswork. Phoenix is considered a mythological bird that rebirths itself from the ashes of itself. Stronger. Greater. Newer. But it was not the same story with NANS. The establishment of NANS has proven over time as the socio-cultural exsanguinations of the then thoroughbred and firebrand militancy of NUNS. NANS has long waved to the intellectual clerisy and beckoned educated jackasses and gits. Little wonder the association lost the compass of objectives and walk on Nigerian university campuses like mere Zombies gazing horizontal hollowness. No wonder the association parades herself as a hub for sycophantic cabals: Giving awards to unmerited government functionaries because of the psychological poverty that rules their minds. The students’ unionism that was planned to be an organised students’ forum for the articulation of students’ needs and societal betterment in the collective interests of the students and the neighboring communities has long been hijacked by avarice, cupidity and mercenaries. The proposed Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact of 1962 which would have made Nigeria a military satellite of its erstwhile colonial master, Britain, was unanimously rejected by NUNS, the group of educating, vibrant, cerebral, logical and indefatigable students in the face of the docile, conservative and senile leadership of the country. These students got the supports of the Elites in the society particularly the then Vice Chancellor, Professor Kenneth Dike because their activism was accompanied with ideology. This could be achieved obviously because the Union was in unison unlike now that the Union has been factionalised into Zones as a result of the materialistic nature of the youths. It has also been monetized by the bourgeoisie who want youthful weights to maintain their sustainability and politicized by the Machiavellian politicians who are power-hungry.
At this point in time, I need to particularly acknowledge the steadfastness, doggedness and ruggedness of Obafemi Awolowo University Students’ Union Government in maintaining the status quo of the founding fathers of National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) and in fanning the embers of progressivism, fairness and equity on their architectural masterpiece campus. Though the holistic traits might not be there presently but at some point we see the Mirage or silhouette of the old culture and old times. No wonder Gani Fawehinmi, Nigeria’s most respected Human Rights Activist and progressive said on his sick bed, “if OAU students ask for my corpse, give it to them.” This revelation is an undiluted objectivity and nothing more. Of course, I cannot but also acknowledge the few men of timbre and calibre whose actions were grandiose and influences were grandiloquent in the history of Nigerian Students’ Unionism despite the desecration of the Holy Temple of Struggle : Chris Mammah, the NANS President in 1981,Emma Ezeazu, the NANS President in 1986 who vehemently led a struggle against the anti-poor policy of Structural Adjustment Programme by the then military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, Nasiru Kura, the NANS President in 1993 who led a struggle against the annulment of June 12,1993 Presidential Election, Com. Rasheedat Adeshina, the Assistant Secretary-General of the UNILORIN Students’ Union among who led a protest against poor welfare conditions on campus, the 1999 Students’ Union Government leadership of Obafemi Awolowo University and also Akinola Saburi (Malcolm x), the Students’ Union President at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-lfe in 2007.
However, the Students’ Unionism in Nigeria has been an Odysseus journey of adventures. It is a tedious journey from Lagos to Laos: a cosmopolitan city of activities to a metropolitan city of fewer activities. It is a proof of deadening existence of youths as against the pro-activeness of the past Golden era. It is a big shame on our existence as youths to allow our youthful strengths to be handicapped by the senility of the old. It would be too remorseful if we doff our intellectual caps to the bastion of abnormalities or monstrosities. I don’t think the posterity would ever take our contrite apology if we keep watching or recoiling into our holes like wounded cobras. I never “worry” about actions, but only about inactions. On this note I will rely on Galilee Galileo’s expression to lighten our dark minds, that, “All truths are easy to understand once you discover them. The problem is how to discover them.” It is no longer news to anybody now that NANS as the students’ forum is not winning any struggle any more. NANS philosophy is embedded in honorable handshake and warm hugs. Well, I believe very soon, “when the ‘come’ comes to “become”, we shall come out.
