Obasanjo, eulogised as an African and international elder statesman, should set the ball rolling by apologising for the student massacres of April, 1978.
By fabulous reports
The culture of brutalising and killing unarmed citizens by government must stop. The enquiry into the massacres should be reopened, discussed and documented for historical, political and moral purposes. Concrete measures should, thereafter, be put in place to hold leaders responsible, accountable and answerable for the massacre of Nigerians carried out under their leadership.
The April 1978 uprising by students was an attempt by youths in the country to make education available and affordable, and democratise the country in the face of military dictatorship.
In what became known as the “Ali-Must-Go” protests, it was organised by the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) and led by Segun Okeowo. That one week uprising, which non-students also joined, is as important today as it was when it began on 17 April, 1978.
It was a milestone in the popular struggle for democracy and development by non-politicians. The uprising was triggered by students’ opposition to the increase in school fees, cost of feeding, cancellation of the Students’ Loan Scheme, and the posting of soldiers to secondary schools to “maintain discipline” by the Obasanjo military junta.
The students, nonetheless, traced the root causes of the protests to the government’s squandering of billions of US dollars on the 1977 World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC); ECOWAS Games; World Scout Jamboree; International Trade Fairs; massive importation of luxurious commodities; huge inflation of contracts; widespread corruption in high places; massive repatriation of profits by multinational companies, amongst others. Therefore, issues that led to the ‘Ali-Must-Go’ protests are still much with us. If anything, the plundering of Nigeria’s natural resources and looting of its commonwealth have reached monumental dimensions since the 1999 return to civilian rule.
Also, the suppression of the protests laid the concrete foundation for subsequent governments to abuse academic freedom, subvert the autonomy of educational institutions, and humiliate entire campus communities.
Today, schools have extremely degenerated to the pre-protest era. This was what NUNS struggled against and its successor, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), continued from 1979 to 1993. Today, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is alone in the struggle to salvage education in its entirety.
‘Ali-Must-Go’ was the first nationwide students’ protest in post-colonial Nigeria, in which primary and secondary school children, women’s groups, and artisans massively participated. The military and the police used helicopters, tear gas, batons, as well as rubber and live bullets, to suppress the protest. A number of students, school children and other citizens were injured, maimed and killed. Nowhere was the protest more ferociously, viciously and brutishly brought down than the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
Obasanjo, as president, butchered people in Odi, Bayelsa State in November 1999, for protesting against environment degradation and demanding the control of their natural resources. His administration also massacred people in Zaki Biam over the killing of nineteen soldiers.
Students’ leaders and activists were arrested, detained and imprisoned. NUNS itself was proscribed, and its properties were confiscated. Its bank account was frozen. The NUNS President, Segun Okeowo; the President of ABU Students’ Union, Bukar Mbaya; and those of the University of Benin, Ekpein Appah; and University of Calabar, Offiong Aqua, were expelled. The Vice Chancellor of ABU, Professor Iya Abubakar, and that of University of Lagos, Professor I. Ade Ajayi, were compulsorily retired. A senior medical officer of the University of Lagos, Dr Ladipo Sogbetun, was also forcibly retired. Eight academic staff, one university administrator, and a journalist were dismissed.
NANS emerged, grew and developed in NUNS’ tradition of struggle and the culture of resistance against authoritarianism and underdevelopment. Its progressive degeneration from 1994 to its miserable state today, is an indication of the deterioration of the education system.
The suppression of the ‘Ali-Must-Go’ protest by the Obasanjo dictatorship, laid the foundation for the mass injury, rape and massacre of Nigerians by the police and armed forces in post-civil war Nigeria. Successive governments since 1978 developed this tradition. The Shagari administration murdered peasants In Talata Mafara (Bakalori), Zamfara State for demanding for fair compensation for their land on 28 April, 1980; and citizens protesting against the rigged general elections of 1983. The Babangida junta massacred students for demanding “Ango-Must-Go” in 1986. Also, it killed citizens for protesting against the imposition and hardship of the IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment Programme in the late 1980s. Umuechem peasants in Rivers State were, on 1 November, 1990, killed for protesting against environmental degradation by Shell and, demanding for roads, water and electricity.
The Abacha administration slaughtered protesters for demanding the de-annulment and actualisation of the 12 June, 1993 Presidential Election. It also killed some Ogoni people for protesting against Shell’s environmental degradation of their land, water and air, with crude oil and gas.
Obasanjo, as president, butchered people in Odi, Bayelsa State in November 1999, for protesting against environment degradation and demanding the control of their natural resources. His administration also massacred people in Zaki Biam over the killing of nineteen soldiers.
The Buhari administration massacred Shia Muslims taking part in the Quds Day procession in Zaria on 12 December, 2015, while in October, 2020, it killed citizens during the EndSARS protests against police brutality, unemployment, general economic hardship and hopelessness.
…Obasanjo is yet to apologise for the suppression of Ali-Must-Go protest. Colonel Ahmadu Ali, the federal commissioner for Education at the time, and whose name became the metaphor for the protests, stated in the Vanguard newspapers of 29 January, 2014, that he had: “always sympathised with them (students)”, adding that he did all he could to discourage the protests by directly engaging the NUNS’ leadership.
However, Obasanjo is yet to apologise for the suppression of Ali-Must-Go protest. Colonel Ahmadu Ali, the federal commissioner for Education at the time, and whose name became the metaphor for the protests, stated in the Vanguard newspapers of 29 January, 2014, that he had: “always sympathised with them (students)”, adding that he did all he could to discourage the protests by directly engaging the NUNS’ leadership. He absolved the Education Ministry he led, stating that it was not the Education Ministry that “did the increment; it was done by the Supreme Military Council (SMC), which is the body that was above the Federal Executive Council.”
The culture of brutalising and killing unarmed citizens by government must stop. The enquiry into the massacres should be reopened, discussed and documented for historical, political and moral purposes. Concrete measures should, thereafter, be put in place to hold leaders responsible, accountable and answerable for the massacre of Nigerians carried out under their leadership.
The massacre of citizens deeply negate democracy and development. Both will grow and flourish only when human lives are held sacrosanct and protected. They will become deeply rooted, self-generating, self-sustaining, and self-propelling when the conditions in which people live and work are humanised; and the nation is developed.
Those under whose watch massacres were committed should be made to apologise to society and humanity. For those leaders who are dead, the current government should apologise on their behalf. Late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua apologised to the nation over the Zaki Biam massacre.
Colonial powers of yesteryears like Germany are apologising for the massacres and genocide they committed against colonised and imperialised people. So, why won’t persons like Obasanjo, Babangida and Buhari apologise for the massacres under their governments?
Obasanjo, eulogised as an African and international elder statesman, should set the ball rolling by apologising for the student massacres of April, 1978.
Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf worked as deputy director, Cabinet Affairs Office, The Presidency, and retired as General Manager (Admininstration), Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMet). Email: aaramatuyusuf@yahoo.com
