By Laju Arenyeka

THE Education Rights Campaign, ERC, has condemned the closure of Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, by the Ogun State government. Recall that the school was shut down recently as a result of students’ protest to reduce hiked school fees to no more than N50,000.

In a press statement released to Vanguard Learning, the National Coordinator of the ERC, Mr. Hassan Soweto said: “We are equally opposed to the militarisation of the campus by the state government which was meant to demobilise the mass of students from organising further planned mass actions against the fee hike.
We demand the immediate reopening of the university and the meeting of all demands of students for substantial reduction in their hiked fees and improved funding of the university.

The real reason the state government closed down the university is to avoid meeting the demands of students for substantial reduction in their hiked fees to an amount not higher than N50,000. To achieve this, the state government is trying to criminalize the students and prepare the ground for police arrests and other forms of victimisation.
We would like to remind the Ogun State Police Command that this is a democracy and the use of police to harrass students and ordinary Nigerians fighting for their legitimate right will not be tolerated.

The ERC shall resist attempts by the Police to arrest, detain or victimise OOU students and their leaders in any way.”
The ERC opined that “the impression being deliberately created that students are violent is not true.

Some weeks ago, the students protested peacefully to the Governor’s Office in Abeokuta. The first day of the protest, some hoodlums attacked the students while the police watched.
The next day, the police fired tear gas at the students, arrested, slapped and brutalised the Vice-President of the Students Union, Seliat Ogunbiyi.

Student leaders

It was only when it became clear that the use of violence would not disperse the students that Governor Amosun came down to discuss with the students.
At the end of the parley, the Governor asked for a few days after which he would invite the student leaders to discuss how to resolve the issues. The students promptly dispersed and went back to their campus to await the Governor.

If the students were really violent and could cause breakdown of law and order, would it have been possible for the Governor to meet and parley with them?”
Continuing, Soweto said: “We hold that the forced closure of OOU is a direct attack on the democratic rights of the students. We call on the students to remain resolute and dogged in spite of all these attacks.

We demand the reversal of the closure of the university and for the Ibikunle Amosun regime to meet the demands of the students. We call on the leadership of the students’ union in the university to provide virile leadership to the students by organising mass meetings of students in main cities such as Abeokuta, Ago Iwoye, Ijebu-Ode and Lagos where the students are concentrated.

It is only by this approach that practical activities such as mass occupations and protests can be undertaken.
It is equally through this approach that the struggle for the total reversal of the fee hike can be achieved.”