A former student activist at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Owolabi Olawale, popularly known as Ogunruku, tells GBENGA OLONINIRAN how a brush with the varsity authorities led to his suspension for seven years, making him spend over a decade in the university before graduating on December 8, 2022
When did you gain admission into Obafemi Awolowo University?
My first admission was on November 14, 2005. (I was admitted) into the Faculty of Agriculture. That can’t be fully added to the gist though, because I never liked the course. So, that led to me jumping ship to Physical and Health Education through the diploma programme in the year 2008. The diploma programmed lasted for two sessions and ended in 2010.
You were suspended in your 200 Level; what led to this suspension?
I was suspended as a Direct Entry student, not as a part-one student, because the diploma programme gave me the opportunity to start from part two.
What led to my suspension? The then Vice-Chancellor, Prof. M. Faborode, increased Acceptance Fee for fresh students, including the Direct Entry students, from N2,000 to N20,000, which was generally condemned by students of OAU in the year (2011) and led to a protest under the leadership of the Students’ Union. I took part in the protest as every other student, only for me to become the ‘bushmeat to be hunted by the greedy hunters in the ivory tower.’
I was first arrested on February 16, 2011, taken to the Department of State Services’ facility in Osogbo and detained for a few days before being released after students’ resistance and protest on campus, demanding for my release. So, I can simply infer that my suspension was as a result of the clampdown the university administration had planned to carry out on student activists, in order to achieve a zombie-like studentry.
How did your family react to the news of your suspension?
It will be highly hypocritical to say that parents do not feel the pain of their wards being punished by the university authorities. But flowing from what Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had made known in some of their analyses that revolutionaries must patiently explain to the people for them to understand. So, that was what happened and my parents became convinced and later gave me their parental support for the path I chose.
Other student activists suspended after you were recalled earlier, why were you not reinstated until 2018?
While I do not know precisely the details of others’ cases, I believe I was not called back majorly because my stance posed a huge threat to the university authorities and their ‘anti-student plans.’ So, they had to make sure I stayed out for them to achieve their aims.
Your suspension lasted for seven years, what were you doing all through that period?
My suspension lasted for seven straight years. I went straight into understanding the dynamism of society in general as a revolutionary. Though I tried to enroll into few schools like the Adeyemi College of Education in 2012, I was denied admission based on the influence of the agent provocateurs in OAU who had vowed that I would never be a graduate.
How were you eventually reinstated?
The reinstatement came when most of the elements involved in the administration that wanted my life completely marred had left the system. And this wouldn’t have been achieved without the help of late Dr Nick Igbokwe. He was one of those who stood their grounds in making sure I returned in the year 2018.
The Acceptance Fee you protested against was eventually paid by the students. Graduating after 11 years, do you have regrets?
Yes, it was paid, but the resistance that year didn’t go without its own gains. Meaning, the awareness of the people about the ‘fraud’ behind Acceptance Fee became known to the people and this led to its eradication in 2019. So, I have no regrets at all.
When you were finally reabsorbed into OAU in 2018, did you continue your activism?
Of course, I continued my activism by becoming an active member of my department and faculty parliaments.
