During the 2014 anniversary of the International Day of Students, Tunde Bakare delivered a paper on the role of students in the forthcoming elections. He said Obasanjo killed Student Unionism in Nigeria when he used force and military power to repress the students during the ‘Ali Must Go’ protest.
The Senior Pastor of The Latter Rain Assembly and Convener of the Save Nigeria Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare has again disapproved of the vices of our national leaders. This time, it is the former President and ex-military personnel Olusegun Obasanjo.
During the 2014 anniversary of the International Day of Students, held at June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta on Monday, Tunde Bakare delivered a paper titled: ‘‘Good Governance: Sustainability of Democracy, the Role of Students in the Forthcoming General Election.” He said the former President killed Student Unionism in Nigeria.
Going down memory lane, Bakare traced the begining of the supression of Student unionism in Nigeria to 1978, when Obasanjo used force and military power to repress the students during the ‘Ali Must Go’ protest. He mentioned that some student died during the protest, one of which is Akintunde Ojo.
Bakare stated than unionism in Nigerian universities used to be an icon of intellectual doggedness and ideological astuteness but Obasanjo supressed to into the symbol of politics and a mere toy in the hands of Nigerian political parties, describing him as the villian of democracy.
Bakare said, He said, “General Olusegun Obasanjo’s government ordered the brutal suppression of that protest. Live bullets were unleashed on protesting students. As we proceeded outside the University of Lagos main gate, I narrowly escaped death, as Akintunde Ojo, the young man standing just beside me, was gunned down. Through that incident, Obasanjo carved his name on marble as a villain of democracy.
“I did not mince words when opportunity presented itself in November of 1978, when I pointed to his face and said, ‘This government possesses power without compassion, might without morality and strength without sight.’”
Tunde Bakare afterwards encouraged students to rid themselves of cultism and other self-destructive tendencies and take back students’ unionism from hoodlums and charlatans. He said that they should not allow any politician to manipulate them or use them for election violence.