Activists Talk Tough on Human Rights Abuses in Nigeria

By Emmanuel  Udom
Last week Thursday was a day, human rights activists in Nigeria literally took past military governments to the cleaners on issues bordering on human rights abuses and unionism.

 The event was the convening in honour of late Comrade Emma Ezeazu, former president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), who died on May 18, this year, after a protracted illness.

Held at the Julius Berger Auditorium, University of Lagos, Akoka, under the chairmanship of Femi Falana, former chairman of West African Bar Association (WABA), the occasion attracted human rights activists, journalists and students from four higher institutions in Lagos.

Falana in his opening shot took the audience down memory lane, where he declared point-blank that former military president, Ibrahim Babaginda, in 1993, attempted to force authorities of the University of Nigeria (UNN), to kill unionism on it campus, but failed woefully.

According to him, the late Comrade Chima Ubani, then president of the students Union of UNN rattled the Babangida with his Structural Adjustment Progaramme (SAP); a move the IBB interpreted the action to mean attempt to overthrow his government.

The radical lawyer recalled that when Chima led the Alli- Must- Go protest in 1970, Babangida set-up a kangaroo military tribunal to try Chima, where he was subsequently jailed.

Rattled students union presidents across campuses in Nigeria mobilized and shut down the IBB regime, forcing him to sponsor cult groups to frustrate student unionism on campuses.

Dr Olisa Agbakoba, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in his views says that beyond aluta songs, student’s union officials in most universities today are timid, selfish and not passionate, unlike in the past.

The former NBA president declared that there is no law in our universities, which says students should be expelled indefinitely for participating in any protest.

In her submission, Ayo Obe, former president of the Civil Liberties Organization lamented that from the military regime of Babangida through to that of General Sanni Abacha and Muhammadu Buhari, the battles for the soul of Nigeria have been fought at the personal expenses of activists.

Her words: Today, human rights situations are worst than the military regime, since politicians in Nigeria are only interested in issues that benefit them to the detriment of the masses.

She advised student union officials across various universities in the country to build  a new generation of activists, beyond self interests in order to earn greatness.