Counting the Cost of Lagos State University Rebellion

A student rebellion took place at Lagos State University. The campuses were closed for months during a teachers' strike., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Counting the cost of LASU riot

Posted by: ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA
The Nation, Nigeria

The Lagos State University (LASU) was shut last Thursday following a violent protest by students.The university management, students, workers and the police are trading blames over who should be held responsible, reports ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA.

The Lagos State University (LASU) is fast becoming notorious for violence. Hardly does one end before another rears its head. Last week, the institution boiled again. The issue at stake could have been resolved amicably, but all caution was thrown to the wind as some students went wild over the shutdown of the institution’s portal to enable them register for the second semester exam.

The violence dampened the enthusiasm which greeted the emergence of new leaders of the Students Union (SU) of the institution through e-voting. Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker Hon Adeyemi Ikuforiji, who led lawmakers to assess the damage done to properties last Saturday, was shocked by the destruction, saying it was scary.

There have been arguments and counter-arguments on why the crisis went out of hand. The management blames the police, and the police are accusing the Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof John Obafunwa, of neglecting the problem until it escalated.

How did LASU students’ protest of last Thursday get out of hand?

On Saturday, some members of the Lagos State House of Assembly visited the university and the Administrative Block 1, which houses the VC’s office. They were appalled by the extent of damage.

Although investigation is still on, the management feels the police could not be totally absolved of blame since they arrived on time following a distress call by the management, but folded their arms and watched as the protesters engaged in an orgy of violence.

On Monday, the university’s Head of Information Dr Sola Fosudo alleged on television that the police not acting on time left room for curiosity. Had they acted promptly, Fosudo argued, perhaps the violence could have been nipped in the bud.
Speaking with this reporter on phone on Tuesday, Fosudo, who admitted that the university would rather wait for the investigation to be concluded, added that on the surface, it appeared the police compromised.

Fosudo said: “I do not want to pre-empt because investigation is still on. But to my understanding, there is no way we can totally absolve the police from the crisis. Since the incident, people have been asking me why police were not able to contain the crisis despite that they arrived the scene on time and saw students protesting.

“The protest lasted for hours before the students eventually gained access into the building and started destroying everything, including the Vice Chancellor’s Office. It was only at the point they were determined to lynch the Vice Chancellor and his aides who were left in the building that police acted.

“What I have always heard is that the police are meant to protect lives and property, so why didn’t they intervene when these students began vandalising property in the Admin Block. That, to me, is when police could have acted, but they waited and watched helplessly until everything turned into rubble.”

On the contrary, the police have insisted that they were reluctant to act because the Vice Chancellor, Prof Obafunwa did not invite them into the campus until the situation got out of hand.

Responding, a highly-ranked officer (names withheld), who was part of the operation, absolved police of complicity.

The source said the police teams were commanded not to step into the university premises but stay put at the main gate because Obafunwa never invited them in.

“Although we were there on time, but we were waiting for the vice chancellor to order us in which he never did. What actually happened was that the management underestimated the situation and felt the internal security could handle it until things got out of control.

“You must realise that this is not a crisis involving mere touts. It is the students of the university that were protesting, so we had to be cautious. If we had gone in and any of the policemen had shot at students, the news would have been everywhere that ‘police have come again ooo; they have shot innocent student protesting.’

“This is an internal crisis in the university and we understand their examination was to start that day. If any shooting had mistakenly occurred while we were outside, everybody would then have known that it is either the students or the university security that is responsible and not the police. But when it got to a level when we realised the students were determined to attack the Vice-Chancellor and his aides, we then swooped into action and rescued them.

“If you were truly there, you would see the police did a brilliant job. Many of us were repeatedly being stoned by the students, but we ensured that no single student died. We also went through hell to get the VC out of that situation and many of us were mobbed.”

The Chairman of the Committee on Insecurity LASU Dr Olusegun Whenu also faults the police.

He told this reporter that there was a little the internal security of the university could do to salvage the situation.

According to him, the security apparatus of the university is only meant to protect the university, and her students against any external aggression, and not to turn its guns on her own students. Besides, he said the protesters were many and could have overpowered the security if they had attempted to challenge them.

He said: “All the workers in the security unit are not beyond 100. So tell me how we could have overpowered the students that were more than 1,000. We even realised later that some of them were armed. What we could only do was to send a distress call to the police for help.

“But when they (police) came, I expected them to at least scare the students away – maybe with teargas canisters but they all gathered there at the gate, saying they must first get an ‘order from above’ before they can commence any action.

“Meanwhile the students had already overpowered the security at the admin block and were vandalising everything.”

Prior to the present crisis, Whenu said the security section had forestalled others from snowballing, one of which involved students’ refusal to retake a GNS examination, as well as another which followed the killing of a popular Hip Hop star, Damuche, a 300-Level undergraduate of LASU who was shot by suspected cultists outside the second gate of the university in Iba.

“At those times students were more aggressive because the fees had just been introduced, yet they never resorted to violence,” Whenu added.

However, findings by our reporter who spoke with some workers in the university on Tuesday revealed that a number of factors were responsible for the worsened crisis.

While the university internal security claimed it had to act with caution, the SU insists the protest was high jacked by hoodlums…and many more.

The Thursday incident was puzzling because it was the first time students attacked the administration block with such ferocity.

This reporter, who was there on Wednesday, witnessed the protesters as they peacefully marched to the university’s Senate Building where the Governing Council meeting was holding. As soon as the meeting was over, the students, holding placards with appealing inscriptions, continued to plead with members of the council. But Obafunwa and the Chairman of Council, Olabode Agusto, walked out on them, a development which infuriated the protesters and subsequently led to the beginning of the violence in front of the university main gate later that day.

The crisis became uncontrollable the following day as the irate students overpowered the university’s internal security, forced their way in and destroyed items, such as computers, laptops, files, photocopiers, among others. They also smashed the VC’s car and that of his PA turning the former upside down.

Some of the students that led the protest were hooded, and sternly warned their schoolmates and journalists not to dare take photographs or record the incident as the consequence would be fatal. Those who had gained entrance into the Administrative Block were throwing files and other documents to a horde of other excited students outside who struggled to catch them mid air.

The SU President, Mojirade Hassan, had alleged the student protest was hijacked by hoodlums.

Explaining his role in the incident, the university’s Dean of Students’ Affairs Prof Kabir Akinyemi told our reporter that neither the students nor the management could blame him as he made repeated attempts to forestall the crisis.

He said on Wednesday when the students staged a peaceful protest to members of the Council who were then holding a meeting, he had met with the 10 students leading the protest and assured them to appeal to the management on their behalf, yet he had no choice than abide with management decision.

He said: “It is my duty as the DSA to mediate between the students and the management.

But I am not a member of the Council and therefore does not have the authority to give orders. My role is simply advisory and management cannot say I did not do my best appropriately. But when management took a final decision, I had to abide by it.

“I had pleaded on behalf of the students more than three times and the portal was opened, but when I made another attempt last week and was turned down, there was nothing I could do. I had to abide because I am part of the management.”

Meanwhile, some of the workers and students who pleaded anonymity blamed the incident on the rigidity of the management and its refusal to heed the students’ plea when they staged a peaceful protest.

A non-teaching staff member of the university who pleaded anonymity traced the genesis of the crisis to increase in tuition as it had created a deep-seated animosity between students and management, noting that the former only used the portal problem to let out their bottled-up anger.

“Government has to do something about this school fees. Let me use us workers as an example. Many of us have children here.

Before the increase, we have a number of cooperative societies here but it is optional and workers who had interest only joined. But now, the list of every cooperative society here has swelled up because many of us now see it as a means by which we can lend a large sum to pay our children’s school fees,” the source said.

Another source in the management said he suspected that some reactionary elements in the university tele-guided the students’ action.

“We suspected that the students’ action was not just ordinary; but they were being influenced by some elements in this institution. All I know for now is that investigation has commenced in earnest and very soon, they shall be exposed,” the source said.