Adeyeye is the National Publicity Secretary of the African Action Congress (AAC).
A Nigerian activist, Femi Adeyeye, has narrated how he was suspended for non-existing offences by the management of the University of Lagos in 2016, stalling his education for years.
Adeyeye is the National Publicity Secretary of the African Action Congress (AAC).
Adeyeye narrated his ordeal as a former student of the university in a video interview shared by The PUNCH.
The activist spoke after graduating from UNILAG seven years after he was suspended for demanding better welfare for his fellow students on campus.
He narrated how UNILAG students were subjected to hardship because of poor power and water supply in the school in April 2016, a problem the school management was unwilling to address at that time.
According to him, after the situation became so unbearable for students, they publicly expressed displeasure at the manner the situation was being addressed by the appropriate stakeholders.
He said, “My story dates back to April 6th, 7th and 8th of 2016 at the University of Lagos when what I can describe as a tsunami happened at the University of Lagos. It has not happened in a long while.
“The issue then was that there was no water on campus, even sachet water at some point. It was so bad at that time that students because there was no water, were using sachet water to bathe to go to classes.
“And that really affected the supply of sachet water at that time. Electricity was also a serious problem for days.
“The student leaders at that time and the students’ union which had just been reinstated after 11 years of suspension walked down to DSS at that time to just lay the issue before the division of students’ affairs.
“They met serious backlash, or let me say they were reprimanded. They came back but students could not hold it anymore and that protest started that evening, the 6th April and the next day, 7th of April.”
He went on to say that the situation degenerated into a riot because the school administration dispatched security personnel to drive away the students and asked the protesters to sign a form since they were all considered suspended and would not be allowed back into the school unless they signed the form.
He continued: “Then 8th of April, that erupted into a riot because it was, in fact, the management that made it riotous because they brought in anti-riot policemen to chase out the students.
“So the campus was shut down for two weeks. And after the expiration of that two weeks, the Senate then came up with a resolution. That was where they got me pissed off because there was nothing in that resolution that actually addressed all of the issues that were raised.
“Very funny things like there will not be light from 7am to 7pm, after that don’t expect light on campus. They asked us to sign an indemnity form to indemnify the management for any responsibility.
“There was also a reabsorption oath, something we all must sign. It was as if at that time all students who participated in that protest were expelled, so to reabsorb you back to campus, you need to sign.
“It was one Sunday and we were asked to resume on Monday, I was like ‘no, no’, this is not going to work. I wrote an article addressing all of these issues…, sexual harassment was included in my article and they published it. just on Facebook timeline at that time. The thing went viral.
“And on the 1st of June, we came back to campus. Some of us resisted the signing of the form which was just a psychological game that was played with UNILAG students at that time because there was nothing in that paper, nothing actually.
“So on the 1st of June, I was contacted by my department that I had a letter to pick up. Immediately I heard that I had a letter to pick, I knew it because I wrote in the article that I was ready for anything that would come out of this.”
Adeyeye said about 20 students were invited to face the school panel, in trials that had already been predetermined by its members.
He added that the management, therefore, proceeded during the eve of the incident to print a new version of the students’ handbook to accommodate the alleged cybercrime he was accused of.
He continued: “Even at the University of Lagos at that time, the offence in which I was suspended did not exist anywhere in the book of the University Of Lagos.
“It was smuggled into in 2016/2017 handbook that they produced, just little copies and they called it cybercrime, cyber offences, or something like that. So you can tell that this was just a smuggled offence just to punish me.
“I was suspended for four good semesters. It was a tortuous journey; we went to court. The case was struck out. I think I had several count charges, allegations something like that, one of which is that I brought in students to chase out the Vice Chancellor at some point. It was cancelled.”