Education Rights Coalition (ERC), an education rights campaigning organization, has rejected the appointment of Professor Wale Omole as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH).
The tertiary institution is jointly owned and managed by the Oyo and Osun State governments.
The group is accusing newly appointed Omole of sponsoring the murder of five union leaders of Obafemi Awolowo University on July 10, 1999.
According to a statement made available by Hassan Taiwo Soweto, National Coordinator of the group based in Lagos, the death of the students has continued to dent the image of the man while his appointment is an insult to the memory of the late unionists who were allegedly murdered by cultists widely believed to have been sponsored by Omole during his tenure as Vice Chancellor of the university.
“We call on the two state governments to reverse themselves on this ignoble and embarrassing appointment,” the group’s statement began.
“We do not for a moment believe the duo of Governor Aregbesola and Ajimobi are ignorant of Prof. Wale Omole’s brutal, despotic and bloodied antecedent as a university administrator. However assuming they have forgotten, we would endeavour to rejig their memory.
“For 8 years he was the Vice Chancellor of OAU, Prof. Wale Omole terrorised students and staff of the university. Not only was he ever-ready to impose any unpopular anti-poor education policies of the military regimes, his own brutal tenure became a sad testament of the militarization of an ivory tower.
“Wale Omole, acting the script of the military regimes, saw independent unionism, especially the buoyant, ideological-driven and radical unionism of OAU, as an impediment to pro-market education policies and from early on in his tenure strove to clip the wings of radical students and staff unions.”
The OAU students union, which was very active in the mass struggle to end military rule, naturally became a target for clampdown, the group recalled, adding that this was a period when Abacha’s gunmen were ravaging the pro-democracy camp killing activists and clamping many, including journalists, into prison without trial.
It accused Prof. Wale Omole of allowing himself to be used by the Abacha military regime in its bid to snuff life out of the student wing of the pro-democracy struggle.
“He banned the OAU students union several times during his tenure. Tens of student activists and union leaders were summarily expelled. In 1995, Prof. Wale Omole expelled the then President of the Students Union, Anthony Fasayo and many other leaders and activists of the union. For the next seven years, OAU students continued to fight for their reinstatement, thereby suffering more victimisation in the process.
“In 1999, a radical union leadership emerged under the leadership of Akinyemi Iwilade (a.ka. Afrika), who was Secretary-General and Lanre Adeleke (a.k.a Legacy), who was President. Under their tenure, the struggle against the anti-poor education policies of Wale Omole’s administration and for recall of victimised activists received a new boost.
“Student protests, boycotts and demonstrations against the management and the military regime became the order of the day. Many anti-poor policies of the University administration including an attempt to increase fees were defeated.
“Faced with a determined union leadership ready to fight it to a standstill, Wale Omole’s university administration drew a line in the sand. As suspension and expulsion no more frightened students, Prof. Wale Omole placed his hope on cult groups which was then becoming a menace in the University due to the brutal attacks on independent unionism and their encouragement by the management,” the group said.
Recalling how the incident happened, the group said on March 7 1999, the Students’ Union, led by Secretary General Akinyemi Iwilade apprehended some cultists belonging to Black Axe confraternity with arms, including guns with several rounds of ammunition. They were interrogated by students and then handed over to university management who transferred them to the Police.
According to ERC, just as it is now, universities then claimed to have official zero-tolerance for cultism, which includes expulsion of any known cultist. But these cultists apprehended by students were freed by a corrupt magistrate, who later became a lecturer in the university, for want of evidence even though he ordered the destruction of the evidence presented, such as the Black Axe regalia and other cult paraphernalia and the transfer of their guns to the Police armoury.
“No doubt, this was done in connivance with the Police and university management. While the case was on the university management refused to produce witness while students had been sent home as a result of struggle for reinstatement of victimized student activities.
“By the time the university reopened, these cultists returned to campus and were seen walking free on campus and even sat for examination! All protests by the Union to Prof. Wale Omole was ignored. As far as he was concerned, gun-wielding cultists were more tolerable on campus than student activists.
“Four months after, on July 10, the same Black Axe confraternity whose members were apprehended in March struck, murdering in cold blood Secretary General of the Union Akinyemi Iwilade (Afrika) who led students to apprehend them and four other students. Curiously they freely gained entry into the university, killed their victims and freely exited without any hindrance!
“Many other union activists, including the union president, who were to be killed escaped only by whiskers. No student or member of the university community who witnessed the gruesome murder can ever forget nor forgive Professor Wale Omole.
“Statements of members of the university management as well as members of the university security unit to the Police showed that the university gate was practically thrown wide open for the cultists. However in the days that followed July 10, OAU students mobilised from Ife to Ibadan, Lagos etc and succeeded in arresting a few of the cult members. In their statements, they acknowledged Prof. Wale Omole as their sponsor.
“Today all the arrested cultists have been discharged and acquitted by Nigeria’s corrupt judicial system. Prof. Wale Omole himself, although chased out of campus by students, did not stand trial for a day. Every year since 1999, OAU students commemorate the July 10 killings crying repeatedly for justice. For this reason, the decision of the Oyo and Osun State Government to edify an alleged murderer like Prof. Wale Omole by appointing him Pro-chancellor of a university is not just an insult to students, it is equally a disservice to the parents and families of the deceased who still feel pained and wronged by the state and its corrupt judicial system.
The group urged National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Bola Tinubu who was reportedly privy to the appointment, to dissociate himself from Prof. Wale Omole.
“We are sure that there are a lot of credible individuals who could be appointed as Pro-chancellor of LAUTECH. Prof. Wale Omole is certainly not fit for such office or any credible public office at all. There is nothing students and staff of LAUTECH can benefit from his appointment as Pro-Chancellor except a continuation of his anti-poor education policies and brutalities for which he was driven from OAU in 1999. Rather he should be placed on trial to answer for his roles in the July 10 murder.
“We call on LAUTECH and OAU students to protest this appointment. We call on the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to publicly reject the appointment and organise protests and demonstrations to compel the Oyo and Osun State governments to reverse the appointment.
“Most importantly, this whole scenario again justifies ERC’s persistent call for the democratisation of universities, which should include giving students and staff of every tertiary institutions the right to decide through a democratic vote appointments into any official position of their schools.
“Without this, one can only imagine what kind of ignoble characters would be smuggled into the administration of our tertiary institutions and educational system in the future.”
