Segun Okeowo: Moving spirit of the 1978 student uprising, By Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf

Okeowo was a radical liberal democrat, thorough nationalist, restless Pan-Africanist, a committed educationalist, a fighter for development and social justice. He strongly believed that the rank-and-file students and the popular masses were the decisive force in the making of history. He joined his ancestors on 18 January, 2024.

Segun Okeowo was one of the most popular student leaders in Nigerian history. He was President, National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS). He led the 1978 NUNS struggle (jihad) for education, popularly known as the “Ali-Must-Go” protests.  

I met Okeowo in October 1990, when I was working on my Masters’ dissertation on “The State, the Student Movement and Democratic Struggles in Nigeria.” I interviewed him on the students’ social and study conditions of his time, the nature and character of the Student Union Movement, and the ‘Ali-Must-Go’ student uprising. I was struck by his simplicity and gentility. As he spoke to me, I imagined the fiery figure he was in the 1970s, heard his thunderous voice, and was carried away by the poetic language he used in answering my questions.

Okeowo was a strong believer in democracy. He practiced organisational democracy, based on mass consultation, criticism and self-criticism, concession-building and collective actions. As a leader, he was said to have submitted virtually all issues to the NUNS leadership for critical consideration and resolution. 

He never attended meetings with the General Olusegun Obasanjo-led military junta and their forces without other student leaders in attendance. He insisted that issues must be discussed and agreed at meetings, and that such issues should be submitted to the affiliate union’s student parliaments and congresses for ratification.

On the basis of my interview with Okeowo, I understood why students materially “lost the Ali-Must-Go battle” but politically “won the war.” Why the jihad initiated an unprecedented historical consciousness among Nigerian students. Why it radicalised the Student Movement of the 1980s to early 1990s. Also, why it marked a watershed in radical, pro-people, pro-democracy and anti-state students’ unionism.

‘Ali-Must-Go’ successfully shattered the “radical” nationalism and Pan-Africanism of the Obasanjo military junta, and demystified the hitherto popular belief that a military government is immune and invulnerable to popular struggles. It brought the Nigerian Students Movement of the 1980s politically closer to the popular masses.

The uprising was triggered by the junta’s cut in education funding and its directives that state governments  should bear the financial burden of the Universal Primary Education scheme. The regime also cancelled the Students’ Loan Scheme, announced increases in school fees from N150 to a minimum of N468, and posted soldiers to secondary schools, allegedly to instil and maintain discipline among students.

The protests began peacefully on 17 April 1978. The next day, a student of the University of Lagos and a pregnant woman were murdered by police. The 19th to 20th of April witnessed the mass injury, maiming, and murder of students, children and other citizens at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, by the police and military. The universities and schools were closed.

In an extraordinary meeting of NUNS, held at the University of Calabar, from 9-11 April, 1978, Okeowo rhetorically asked: “Why should education be made the JUDAS of the past national extravaganzas and squandermanias or jamboree of FESTAC and festivals” in a period when, “Inflation is staring the masses in the face”? And when, “our poverty-stricken parents and the tolling masses… cannot just afford the unjustifiable exorbitant fee increase”? 

He submitted that education must be reformed and democratised, be a right and not a privilege, made a popular commodity and not an exclusive elitist luxury, and be “compulsory and free at all levels.” He criticised the aims and objectives of education as elitist, undemocratic and anti-development, stressing that, “our struggle for the democratisation (of education) must be seen as an integral aspect of the general democratisation of society.” 

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Delegates accepted his submissions and resolved to embark on the third phase of the jihad – “Operation Confrontation”. An appeal was made to students to remain resolute. The junta was called to “hear and heed” the popular, patriotic, and democratic demands of Nigerian students. NUNS implored the general public to support the historic struggle for education.  

Operation Confrontation was justified on the basis that, “(t)he final justifiable justice against unjustifiable injustice is a justifiable justice, at this stage confrontation is in conformation with natural law.” Confrontation involved the boycott of lectures; peaceful protest-demonstrations within and outside the campuses; hunger strikes; and the enlistment of primary and secondary school children, workers, artisans, market women and all those “who wish us well” into the struggle. 

The protests began peacefully on 17 April 1978. The next day, a student of the University of Lagos and a pregnant woman were murdered by police. The 19th to 20th of April witnessed the mass injury, maiming, and murder of students, children and other citizens at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, by the police and military. The universities and schools were closed.

The killings so pained Okeowo that he wrote in his NUNS Testament of the Free Education Jihad what an, “Unparalleled primitive police barbarism! Unprecedented barbaric military anarchism! A combined conspiracy against intellectualism! Soaked in the flood of blood were the maimed and the murdered. The maimed moaning, the wounded groaning, the bereaved grieving. Not a single campus was without a carnage or a rampage. What a brutal black week of national tragedy!”

These tragedies, Okeowo added, took place despite the fact that the protest was, “based on the doctrine of passive resistance – lecture boycott. And the universally-acknowledged placard-displaying match. No destruction, no provocation, no instigation, no violation. All they demanded was rectification of their justifiable indignation. BUT the forces of barons and bullets combined. Swooped on the defenceless brains in an unprecedented carnage. That rendered Soweto and Sharpeville massacres mere thrash and trifle.”   

…NUNS did not just jump into confronting a ferocious military junta. It began with “Operation Consultation.” During this, student leaders “consulted the consultable” – the “powers that be” and “whoever is available for consultation.” These included military junta officials, military governors, education administrators, elder statesmen and traditional rulers, etc.  

But NUNS did not just jump into confronting a ferocious military junta. It began with “Operation Consultation.” During this, student leaders “consulted the consultable” – the “powers that be” and “whoever is available for consultation.” These included military junta officials, military governors, education administrators, elder statesmen and traditional rulers, etc.  

They appealed against the commercialisation of education, describing it as “unpopular and oppressive”, and “confusing, contradictory, unprogressive and oppressive.” They insisted that the failure of government to, “harness our vast human and material resources for progressive national development” was primarily responsible for the education crisis.

The second phase was “Operation Consolidation”. Here the objectives were to: mobilise and organise rank-and-file students against the commercialisation of education; communicate NUNS activities to students; and, enlighten the general public on “the barriers militating against the educational policy.”

Under this, NUNS stressed, among other things, that if poor countries like Ghana and Tanzania could afford to subsidise education and even provide financial assistance to students: “then Nigeria, the richest country in Black Africa, has no moral justification whatsoever to be unable to do same.” It added: “ANY continental giant requires a great number/quantity and quality of skilled manpower which only education” can provide. Operation Consolidation, Okeowo told me, was to “consolidate Operation Consultation.”

However, the junta was adamant. On this Okeowo poeticised: “Ekpein Appah rusticated from UNIBEN. After a six week detention in Kirikiri. All for writing a protest letter to the Head of State. Bukar Mbaya expelled from ABU Samaru for leading a revolutionary conglomeration of compatriots. Who refused to succumb to the sentiment of tribalism. Offiong Aqua incurred the wrath of UNICAL. Suspension for a session became an expulsion  At the instance of the angry internal boss.” Okeowo, himself, was expelled. All were blackmailed, harassed, intimidated and illegally imprisoned for months. 

Okeowo was a radical liberal democrat, thorough nationalist, restless Pan-Africanist, a committed educationalist, a fighter for development and social justice. He strongly believed that the rank-and-file students and the popular masses were the decisive force in the making of history. He joined his ancestors on 18 January, 2014.

Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf worked as deputy director, Cabinet Affairs Office, The Presidency, and retired as General Manager (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMet). Email: [email protected]