A British Prison in Nigeria?

Note: I'm going to be away for a week or so, so don't expect any posts until next saturday at the earliest.

The government has announced that it is in negotiations with the Nigerian government over proposals to upgrade the prison infrastructure in that country to allow them to forcibly transfer around 400 prisoners back to Nigeria.
The current UK prison service policy is to offer foreign national prisoners a transfer back to their country of origin where a treaty for such a course of action exists with that country. Such prisoners would then serve out the remainder of their sentences in their country of origin. However, given the appaling prison conditions in many countries around the world it is somewhat unsuprising that many imprisoned foreign nationals do not take up this offer. Even with the governments Facilitated Returns Scheme, with the 'incentive' of giving prisons who opt for a transfer £46 in cash (the equivalent of the amount that all prisoners receive upon release from prison to pay for any immediate needs) has not upped the return rate significantly.
The new plans are similar to a scheme that the prisons service has previously funded in Jamaica, where a prison was partially funded to help speed up prisoner transfers. In both Nigeria and Jamaica prison conditions are notoriously bad, Nigeria's prison system has been condemned by Amnesty International. Over 65% of those in Nigerian prisons have not being convicted of any crime, with waits of up to 10 years for a trial and as a result the prison system there is notoriously overcrowded.
The proportion of foreign nationals imprisoned within the UK prison system has grown largely over the past few decade or so, yet according to the Prison Reform Trust the overwhelming majority of these are first time offenders from some of the poorest countries in the world who have been convicted of drug trafficking. This means that rather than a wave of immigrant violence as some of the press have tried to paint these figures, the rise in foreign national prisoners is mostly down to increases in sentences handed out for drug related crimes, especially given that 4 in 10 male foreign nationals and 8 in 10 female foreign nationals in UK prisons have been convicted of drug offences.
In criminological theory, imprisonment is said to be justified on several grounds, either of incapacitation of those likely to commit crimes or of deterrence of people from committing future crimes. But it is not the people who are getting caught in these cases that are the serious criminals, those at the top of the drug cartels can simply sit back as the capture of another expendable mule means nothing to them. It is the criminological equivalent of chopping off the head of the weed but doing nothing about the roots.
A British funded prison will not do anything about the underlying problems within Nigerian society that lead people into the desperation of becoming drug mules, in particular the rape of the oil wealth by the Nigerian state and capitalist class which has led to poverty for the masses. Incidentally this is the same Nigerian government which has been backed by the British government despite widespread claims of fraud in the most recent national elections. So small are the hopes for even under this scheme convincing Nigerian prisoners to even transfer to a specifically built prison, as being proposed, that the government as part of the proposals is aiming to convince the Nigerian government to change its constitution to allow forcible prisoner transfers.
Schemes like this are only being proposed as a result of years of hiking up the prison sentences for crimes that are either trivial or are committed by those who would be unlikely to re-offend anyway as a repsonse to populist pressure for 'tough' action against crimes. Such prisoners are easily convicted and allow government bureaucrats to present figures that show they are 'winning the war on crime', yet do not tend to represent genuine steps towards seriously dealing with major crime problems. Removing the corrupt, theiving Nigerian ruling class and replacing them with democratic committees of workers and other oppressed layers and giving them control of the countries resources to alleviate the widespread poverty in the country would represent a serious step towards reducing the numbers of Nigerian drug traffickers, far more than any of the prison services schemes. But such a step would never be advocated by the UK government who rely on the Nigerian regime to support the interests of British capitalist companies in the country. Hence why only socialists can seriously solve the criminal justice crisis and under capitalism we see high crime rates and an escalating prison population.

Student Struggles In Africa

I've lost my USB strick with various pieces I'd written for the blog on it. However, I thougth i ought to post something in the meantime so there is selection of reports about student struggles in Africa

Burkina Faso

Tinette Schnatterer, who recently spoke to student activists in Burkina Faso, looks at developing mass protests and strikes in the impoverished West African country, which has one of the lowest GDP per capita incomes in the world and is ranked the 127th poorest nation.

Brutal police action against student strike
United action of protesting workers, students and poor needed!
Tinette Schnatterer, SAV (CWI in Germany)

After months of protests, 17 June saw university students in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, go on strike to increase pressure for more classrooms, higher grants and lower tuition fees. Studying conditions are catastrophic. The entire department for German Studies has to share two dictionaries and two computers. Over the last few days, another demand has been added by the students: the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the police from the university campus.
Police shoot at students
On 17 June, the biggest student union, ANEB, called a demonstration and a sit-in in front of the rector's office at the university. They wanted to force the administration to react, which until then tried to ignore the protests. But instead of negotiating with the students, the authorities called in the police. The police shot live bullets at the peaceful demonstration. It is reported that 62 students were arrested and many injured. One student told us: "A student has been shot in the leg. We thought we were in Darfur". Since then, the campus has been surrounded by the police, even though access to the campus by the police is prohibited by law.
Some of the arrested students had to be released because of a lack of evidence. Four students were sentenced to 6 months, released on probation, and fined 5,000 Franc CFA. They have been accused of 'damaging property' during the demonstration. Contrary to what has been reported in the media, the students only started to fight back when the police started to shoot at their demonstration.
During the court trial, which lasted 48 hours, hundreds of students waited in the overcrowded courtroom, and in front of the court buildings, to show their solidarity with their fellow students. This is why the court sentences were much less than that demanded by the prosecutor.
University principal shuts down the university
To underline that they will not be intimidated but will continue to struggle until their demands are carried out, students called another demonstration for 26 June. The University Administration reacted immediately and closed down the whole university. "For the moment, we shut down all the social services, particularly the hostels, the canteens and the health stations for the students", said Bibia Robert Sangaré, President of the National Centre of University Institutions.
This led to enormous problems for the striking students. Most of them have homes far away from the university, share a small room in student hostels and have no finances. The university administration is now trying to literally starve out the protesters. At the same time, a student told us:"The University Principal threatens us with the annulment of the term, they want to boycott our results and make us repeat the academic year."
Nevertheless, the students organised further protests. "The Campus is surrounded by the police. We have no possibility at all to get into contact with our rank and file members. But, on Monday, we will organise a big rally of all the students on the campus", said Adama Baguiyan, President of the General Alliance of the Students Burkina Faso (UGEB), the umbrella organisation to which the ANEB belongs.
Growing anger at neo-liberal policy
During the last months, there were growing protests in Burkina Faso, as in the whole region, against the effects of neo-liberal policies. Big demonstrations and strikes against rising food prices and against the EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU) shattered the country. The brutal police actions against the students show how much the government fears these protests.
Parallel to the student protests, workers in the health industry responded to a strike call from the Synsha trade union and went on a three day strike. To transform this widespread anger into effective resistance, the unions should organise, as the next step, a one day, country-wide, general strike of workers, students and the urban and rural poor. Also political representation, that does not look for an alliance with Western banks and big corporations, but unites resistance against capitalist globalisation internationally, is necessary. Capitalism demonstrates, daily, that profits of big corporations are more important to it than food and education for millions.
"Don't shoot, you can't kill ideas"
"Don't shoot, you can't kill ideas" - These were the words spoken by the former radical, anti-imperialist president, Thomas Sankara, one week before his assassination in a military coup in 1987. The growing enthusiasm for Sankara, especially among young people, is the expression of a search for alternatives. Despite repression, thousands participated in protests to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Sankara's assassination, last year. But, unfortunately, the tragic end of Sankara's four years rule showed that a complete break with capitalism is necessary to open the way to real liberation from imperialism and the first steps towards a socialist planned economy. These steps cannot be introduced from above, or simply by a chief of government. Only a revolutionary movement of workers, youth and peasants (in Burkina Faso, 80 % of the population work in agriculture) will be able to replace the dictatorship of profit with a society where the mass of the population democratically decide what to produce and how. The mass movement is key to succcess, and the example of Venezuela shows current these debates are today.

Nigeria

Education Rights Campaign
Pay Teachers Adequate Wages Now!
Press Statement by the Education Rights Campaign, Nigeria

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) hereby condemns in strong terms the failure of the Yar'Adua and state governments to hearken to the demands of Nigerian teachers who are requesting for improved remuneration as contained in the Teachers Salary Scale. Also, we declare our total support of the teachers for improved living conditions. We enjoin the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) to lead the struggle to a logical conclusion that will ensure improved and adequate living wage for teachers.
It is ridiculous that the same government that claim to be committed to the human capacity development including education could wait until the teachers, most of whom are paid poverty wages, to embark on wage to improve their living standard. It is ridiculous that the government cannot recognize the link between teachers' living standards and educational development. According to a UNESCO report, Nigeria requires over 200, 000 teachers to bring to school over eight million children currently out of school, while more teachers are needed to provide quality education to Nigerian children based on international standard, but these numbers of teachers could not be got because teachers are poorly treated by the governments at all level. One would have expected the federal government to immediately concede to the demands of the teachers other than the present hide-and-seek game of the government. This again confirms our belief that the present government is not interested in the development of the country notwithstanding their grandstanding.
This is already confirmed in the manner the federal and state governments are handling the education sector. Currently across all tertiary institutions, fees are being hiked despite the fact that many students come from working class and poor peoples' backgrounds. Furthermore the federal budget for education is less than 8.3 percent while UNESCO recommended 26 percent for developing nations like Nigeria. This terrible trend of the federal government is being followed by several state governments. Those state governments which claim to be committing more than 20 percent to education only use education as a smokescreen to divert public fund for personal use. This is graphically manifested by the revelation on the looting of the UBE fund by state and federal UBEC officials.
All this has led to degeneration in the standard of education in the country from primary to tertiary level. While primary schools, save for a block of classrooms being constructed in few selected schools, are lacking basic facilities, secondary and most tertiary institutions are in rotten state. Currently while over a million students sat for the last UME examinations, a paltry 200, 000 will be admitted because the universities lack basic facilities to adsorb enough students. This is the crisis that government under funding of education and chronic mismanagement has caused to the education sector.
Therefore, for anybody interested in the revitalization of education, the current struggle of the teachers should be supported as a stepping stone towards forcing the government to properly fund education and pay adequate wages for education workers (and indeed other workers). While politicians in power collect millions of naira as salaries and allowances most teachers are paid less than the N10, 000 minimum wage. As against the excuse of the state and federal governments that they do not have fund to pay the new pay, politicians who are put in education boards and commissions like UBE boards and teaching service commissions are paid hundreds of thousands of naira as monthly pay. If truly the governments do not have the money, they should reduce the salaries of all political office holders to that of the teachers. The reason the government will not pay teachers, and indeed fund education properly, is because the government is committed to neo-liberal capitalist policies that tend to give public resources to big moneybag business and politicians.
Consequently, we of the ERC call on the leadership of the NUT not to compromise but to mobilize not only teachers but also the other oppressed people like other workers, the market women, artisans, youth and the unemployed for mass rallies, protest marches, picket and press campaign that will force the government within the shortest time to concede to the demands of teachers. Furthermore, we enjoin the NUT leadership to ensure that all categories of teachers – federal government-, state-employed and privately-employed teachers – are affected by the TSS. The current attempt of state governments to distance themselves from the issue should not be allowed.
The leadership of central labour unions – NLC and TUC – must not only support the teachers actively by declaring solidarity actions including strikes, protest marches, rallies, etc. but to also start a mass action for N30, 000 minimum wage. We also feel that NUT should join force with other staff and students' unions in the education sector to demand proper funding of education by at least 26 percent of the budget coupled with democratic management at all levels to include elected representatives of education workers' and students' unions.
For us in the ERC, we have declared July 16, 2008 as a National Day of Action to demand proper funding of education by at least 26 percent of the budget coupled with democratic management at all levels to include elected representatives of education workers' and students' unions; recall of all victimized workers' and students' activists (UNILORIN 49 lecturers, OAU 10, etc.) and end to the culture of victimization; reversal of hike in fees; proper and adequate remuneration of all education workers; among others. We call on students' and workers' activists, unions and civil society organizations to join us in this struggle which shall include mass rallies, protest marches and lecture boycotts across campuses, schools and communities. Once again we give our solidarity to teachers in their struggle for better wages.
Hassan Taiwo
NATIONAL COORDINATOR
Chinedu Bosah
NATIONAL SECRETARY

Nigeria, the struggle goes on

Here's a piece i've written for our su paper on the solidarity campaign with nigeria students, btw. if you click the link at the bottom theres a new piece up by some nigerian comrades who were also active at the student union in Nigeria in the past

Over the last few months, Bangor University Socialist Students society have been campaigned in defence of three arrested student union leaders in Nigeria; Akinola Saburi, Olatunde Dairo & Taiwo Hassan Soweto. Their crime? To stand up for the rights of students.
The saga began around this time last year when the three participated at various times in student agitation for a week long period free of lectures before exams. Revision time for exams is something that most people would find uncontroversial, but not the authorities at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Instead they decided to ignore the students demands and shut down campus twice for several months claiming concern for a breakdown in law and order as well as standing their own slate of stooges for the student union elections, which were overwhelmingly defeated by genuine activists.
It is at this point that the university authorities tried this latest ploy. In August Akinola Saburi, the president of the student union at OAU, was arrested without being charged. Some months later, whilst campaigning for his release, the other two students were arrested. They were later charged with ludicrous offences such as the attempted murder of a former University Vice-Chancellor in 2004.
The students spent months applying for bail and after much prevarication by the courts were granted it, but with conditions which are impossible for them to meet including large sums of money. They were forced to spend Christmas and the New Year languishing in their cells.
Is their situation that different from our own? Last year the university implemented cuts to the Ocean Sciences department that are still affecting students now without any real consultation. True, none of our students have been arrested on made-up charges, but then there was no mass campaign involving thousands of students at a time like there has been in Nigeria.
Students around the world should support each others campaigns for better living and studying conditions. We are still appealing for protest letters to be sent and as well as asking for donations towards the defence campaign for these student leaders. For details see www.socialistnigeria.ord/students

To find out more and how you can get involved in the campaign, contact us at socialiststudents@undeb.bangor.ac.uk

Support victimised Nigerian Students!

Socialist Students in Bangor held a day of action in support of victimised student activists at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife Nigeria.

Iain Dalton & Gemma Chapman, Bangor Socialist Party

Three student leaders are being held in prison on trumped up charges of conspiracy to murder. They were elected by the student body fight against plans to commercialise and undermine education provision and to attack students’ rights to organise and resist.
We ran a stall collecting signatures demanding the students release.
Later on three of us attended the Student Union General Meeting where we spoke to members of the Amnesty Society who pledged support for our solidarity campaign.

For more info about the international day of protests see http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2007/10/25nigera.html

And for the latest report from Nigeria see http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2007/10/25nigerb.html

Crisis at OAU, Nigeria Continues - Release the Victimised Activists

OAU Ile Ife Crisis: DSM Members Arrested

Release Taiwo Hassan and Tunde Dairo Now!

Also Akinola Saburi!!

The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) strongly condemns the arrest of two of its members at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, today, Thursday October 11, by armed police at the behest of the management of the institution. The comrades are Taiwo Hassan Soweto, Secretary, DSM OAU Branch and Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign (ERC), and Olatunde Dairo, Public Relations Officer of Students Union, OAU Ile-Ife.

We demand their immediate and unconditional release

They were arrested after the authorities had unjustifiably closed down the campus and ordered students to vacate halls of residence as early as 7am.

The crime of the arrested student leaders is their leading role in the legitimate resolve of students to uphold their rights and interests.

The students of the university had on Tuesday October 9 held a massively attended Congress where they resolved that they would embark on a lecture boycott on Thursday and Friday October 17 and 18 to press home the demands for release from imprisonment of Akiola Saburi, President Students Union; hands off of student union by the university management and improved living and learning conditions on the campus.

Akinola Saburi has been unjustly incarcerated at the Ilesha Prison since August 1, 2007. Students also resolved to go to Osogbo on Monday October 15 to observe the court trial of Saburi which is due on that day.

The closure of the campus and arrest of the DSM members is attempt by the management to forestall the popular/mass action the students had planned for next week.

It will be recalled that the crisis started in the University late last year after students democratically elected a radical leadership, with Akinola Saburi as President and Olatunde Dairo as the PRO, defeating the sponsored candidates of the management. Students chose their leadership to ensure uncompromising defence of their rights and interests to quality university education. On the contrary, the management had wanted to impose a puppet leadership on the students in order to muzzle divergent views or opposition to their anti-poor neo-liberal policies.

We condemn highhandedness and arbitrariness which the Professor Michael Faborede led authorities have adopted as style of administration since their appointment last year. This is the second time the university has been closed down in less than one year for unjustifiable reason, besides the regular recourse using to armed police whenever students embark on legitimate action in defence of their rights and interests.

We call on Labour, teaching and non-teaching unions, human rights groups, pro-masses organisations and individuals locally and internationally to join us in the demands for the immediate and unconditional release of Taiwo Hassan, Tunde Dairo and Akinola Saburi, respect of rights to independent students’ unionism, improved learning and living conditions, immediate re-opening of the campus and end to culture of victimization in the university.

For more on the OAU Crisis http://www.socialistnigeria.org/page.php?article=1233 and http://www.socialistnigeria.org/page.php?article=1278

We also call for urgent protest letters be sent to:

- Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) at registra@oauife.edu.ng

- OAU Vice-Chancellor – mfaborode@yahoo.co.uk & mfaborod@oauife.edu.ng

- Nigerian Federal Ministry of Education at ehquiries@fme.gov.ng and te@fme.ng.

Please note that copies of all protest letters sent should be made available to the Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI, Nigeria) at dsmcentre@hotmail.com

Dagga Tolar

Publicity Secretary

DSM

Attacks on Nigerian Students Union

23 August 2007

OAU CRISIS
ATTACKS ON UNION GETS FIERCER
Akinola Saburi (President, Students' Union) Arrested, Union Proscribed!
"Students' unionism in the University had been proscribed until further notice. In its place…the University had approved the constitution of a STUDENTS' TRANSITION COMMITTEES that would be made up of the leadership of students' associations at the departmental and faculty levels" (emphasis ours).

"Students who had been indicted for various cases of misdemeanour had, however, been banned from the halls of residence. … …any of such students who had rooms allocated to him previously should consider such revoked"

"…Ogunruku warned returning students against "squatting" stressing that the practice had been banned. Students found harbouring squatters, the registrar added, would forfeit their allocations."

(Extracts of a Press Release published in Tuesday 21st, August, 2007 issue of The Punch newspaper revealing what fate awaits OAU students and Union leaders upon resumption by August 26, 2007)

If there has ever been such period in our history, the past ten months have, indeed, been very trying for the Students' Union, activists and generality of students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ife. The reason is the avalanche of vicious attacks, frame ups and victimization launched by the management of the Institution against the right of students to independent unionism. In an earlier outcry titled "OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY CRISIS: After Banning of the Students Union, Authorities Set to Victimize Student Leaders; Appeal for Solidarity Protest Letters" (http://www.socialistnigeria.org/page.php?article=1233) we had explained the background of the crisis as rooted in the defeat of the efforts of the Vice Chancellor Prof. Faborode-led management to impose their lackeys into the leadership of students by interfering in the Students' Union elections. How the mass of students defeated this move and voted massively for the left bloc constituted by the Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI, Nigeria) and other organisations. Ever since, the University Management had resolved to use any means necessary to crush the OAU Students' Union.

We also pointed out how the management had, in search of any excuse to pick on the Union, refused to grant students' legitimate demand for observance of the regulations of the statute of the University that, before examinations, a week devoid of lectures and other academic activities must be set aside for students to revise for examinations. When students protested peacefully against this arbitrariness, the management closed down the campus on February 28, 2007. Then, a month after the closure, members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) struck nationally for three months over refusal of the Federal government to fulfil some agreements reached in 2001 on staff welfare, reinstatement of 44 victimized lecturers in Unilorin and better funding of education. Four months after, when ASUU had called off their strike action, the campus was opened for the Harmatan Semester examination.

The current crisis where the President of the Students' Union has been unjustly and illegally detained at Ilesha and other union leaders declared wanted is an offshoot of these earlier attacks. During the period of the closure, the management had declared the Students' Union banned while attempts were made to victimize about seven Union leaders, three of whom are members of Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI, Nigeria). This was effectively resisted by a Court order of the Federal High Court in Osogbo, which granted the seven Union leaders an injunction putting on hold the undemocratic disciplinary panel set up by the management to witch hunt them. Also, the President of the Students' Union, Akinola Saburi, who had been earlier expelled from the University after the Students' Union elections, approached the court of law during the closure and was also granted leave to exercise his fundamental human rights which includes right to free movement, association and expression without harassment. On the basis of this court order, Akinola Saburi came to onto campus after re-opening to take charge of his official responsibility as the head of the Union.

However, the Management felt intimidated by the popular and enthusiastic welcome he received from the mass of students and they therefore swore to get him out of campus at all cost. They themselves understood the implication of his coming and the enthusiastic welcome he received as a bold rejection of the ban of the Union. After repeated attempts to kidnap him on campus with the aid of the University rag-tag fascist force tagged "Crackers" (a security team comprising members of local militias of community where the University is situated) were defeated by the mass of students, Akinola Saburi was eventually ambushed and arrested on 31st, July 2007 by men of the State Security Service(SSS) at the premises of the Federal High Court, Osogbo where he had gone to file some applications for the pursuit of his legal case against his unjust dismissal.

In order to give quasi-legal justifications for this arrest, which totally contravene the earlier order of a Federal High Court, Osogbo in Saburi, was arraigned before a Magistrate Court (a lower court) the next morning (1st, August 2007) on a 10-count charge. It must be noted that in Nigeria, as in all nations claiming democracy, the Constitution clearly specifies ways and manners the law can be enforced without violating people's fundamental human rights. These are eloquently stated in sections 35 and 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. However, in gross violations of these sections of the constitution, Akinola Saburi was arraigned without being informed of the details of the allegations against him nor was he allowed to contact his lawyers. Instead, a certain lawyer was arranged to stand in his defence without his consent. Not surprisingly therefore, the court did not find it difficult to remand him in Ilesha Prisons and adjourn his case till October 19, 2007 when he would have spent a total of three months in detention.

In response, the Union has, at every opportunity, declared Akinola Saburi's arrest and detention as illegal, unconstitutional and unjust. We have rejected the composition of a "Student Transition Committee" as illegal and null and void. We have also demanded the management to hands off our Union and to stop the victimization of Union activists. To allow the general public to know the truth of the crisis, the Union has kick started a press campaign with press conferences and protest visits to media houses.

However, we appeal for political support from all student unions and organizations, progressive organizations, CWI sections, Trade Unions and working class platforms all over the world. The Students' Union of Obafemi Awolowo University is only being victimized for its radical stance against the neo-liberal anti-poor policies of successive Nigerian governments on education and the economy as a whole. We appeal to organizations, in Nigeria and beyond Nigeria, who are ready to participate in the struggle to save OAU Students' Union from these attacks to send the protest letter below. Outside Nigeria, there could be protests outside Nigerian embassies and activities help to raise awareness through leaflets, posters, Union bulletins, symposia etc about the events happening here among students in your country. The aim and focus is to show to the Nigerian capitalist government and the anti-poor governments of all countries that unity exist among all oppressed people of the world and that no matter the distance that separate us, we shall collectively fight to win the struggle for a society where education will be free and functional and people's needs will form the basis of governance.

In the opinion of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), such a society for the millions and not the millionaires is only possible if the workers and the mass of poor people take over the running of society and form a "workers' and peasants' government". It is only this kind of government of the poor that can, through socialist plan of production and democratic ownership of the commanding heights of the economy, channel the enormous resources of the society for the welfare of the poor.

H.T Soweto, Secretary, Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), OAU branch.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PROTEST LETTER
Copy and send this protest letters to the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) at registra@oauife.edu.ng, the Vice-Chancellor – mfaborode@yahoo.co.uk & mfaborod@oauife.edu.ng and the Federal Ministry of Education at ehquiries@fme.gov.ng and te@fme.ng. Note copies of all protest letters sent should be made available to the Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI, Nigeria) at dsmcentre@hotmail.com

HANDS OFF INDEPENDENT UNIONISM
Release Akinola Saburi
We have been informed about the proscription of the Students' Union of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) by the management of the University led by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Michael Faborode and the composition of a Student Representative Committee as a replacement for the Union. We have also heard about the unlawful arrest and detention of the President of the Students' Union, Akinola Saburi, the takeover of the Students' Union Building and the victimization of several union leaders.

May we clearly state it that the above actions individually and collectively taken by the management is an affront on the democratic rights of students to association and expression as eloquently provided for in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, African Charter on Human Rights and the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR). It must be stressed that the management and even the government have no lawful right to proscribe or suspend a Union. Thus, the alleged proscription of the Union and the Student Transition Committee are illegal.

We decry the arrest and continuous detention of Akinola Saburi who we insist has committed no crime. We regard the 10-count charges preferred against him as unfounded, unsubstantiable, wild and inconsistent. We also regard the whole process as a mockery of the judiciary for the magistrate court to have remanded Akinola Saburi in contravention of an order of the Federal High Court empowering Akinola Saburi to exercise his fundamental human rights without harassments.

We therefore call for immediate reversal of all illegal and draconian actions taken against the Union as well as a halt to victimization of Union activists.

Thank You