Kunle Adepeju: Zikism, Unionism and Students’ Welfare

Aduwo Ayodele

The position of Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall, University of Ibadan, which was established on September 20, 1963, the year Nigeria became a republic, is an important one where the root and early days of unionism, especially in the University of Ibadan, is concerned. Within the social life that being a student of the University of Ibadan affords one, Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall enjoys an eminent reputation. It is known for its valued repute politically. In relation to the 1971 protest which erupted from Zik Hall and shook the University of Ibadan, Zikism is also tied to unionism.

We must cut some slack for the Zikites of yesteryears who have made it possible that today, as you read, a past can be connected to the present. This is made possible as we must review our lives and values, especially on days when the pages of history have to be flipped backwards into years; fifty-three years. It has become essential that one discusses the very uneventful incident of February 1, 1971, and should equally slur the ties historical lessons may steer into our face.

Zik Hall, as it is fondly called, has a lapping stand for others and an attentive poise in bearing political consciousness among students of the prestigious University of Ibadan. The hall, at inception, produced Chief Tunde Aluko, who, doubling to being the hall’s first Chairman, was also the Secretary General of, the National Union of Nigerian Students, 1964/65. The hall has produced a long list of others who have been honed for the great measure of humanity, the ideas and values they represent.

‘Zikism’– a shared belief of oneness, though a deft language, is a rupture in the hearts of members of the hall, as the hall used to be the most radical students’ hall in the university. One of which has contributed significantly to the University’s history, is the 1971 “Apampa Must Go” protest. On Monday, February 1, 1971, the first and one of the greatest opprobrium of injustice struck. That year, Kunle Adepeju, a 200-level student was shot at, by an officer of the Nigerian Police Force during a peaceful protest, organized by student residents of Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall on the soil of the University of Ibadan.

On February 1 1971, on a Monday morning at the University of Ibadan, students of what has continued to remain Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall of Residence, were inflamed by the ineffectiveness of the welfare and catering service manager, Mrs. Grace Apampa. The students had sent several allegations and a petition to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Thomas Lambo, calling for the removal of the manager, and nothing was done by the management. Mrs. Grace’s service and her role as the catering manageress became further dissatisfactory to the extent that residents of Zik Hall resolved to embark on a forty-eight-hour hunger strike.

The catering manager’s ineffectiveness and the University authority’s sheer negligence and incivility to the students’ dissatisfaction regarding what they termed sub-quality welfare provoked what birthed the February 1, 1971 students’ peaceful demonstration.
As the students gathered, they tripped from Zik Hall, foot slogging through to where they were finally halted by the Nigerian Police Force, whose presence had been duly invited by the Vice Chancellor. The peaceful protest spiralled when a trigger-happy constabulary shot misguidedly at Kunle Adepeju, a second-year Agricultural Economics student. Record has it that Kunle was making his way into Mellanby Hall, close by where the protest was ongoing, but had decided to show sympathetic solidarity with the demonstrating students as they carried an injured student who was shot in the leg by the police. Kunle was shot and was confirmed dead at Jaja clinic. Sheltering his body in blood, Kunle was laid in front of Queen Elizabeth II Hall. Not until February 4th, before his burial, did concerned authorities inform Kunle’s parents about the incident.

At Kunle’s funeral, held at St. Anne’s Anglican Church, Molete Ibadan, were Wole Soyinka, Wahab Omorilewa Goodluck (founding President of the Nigerian Labour Congress), among others who were in attendance.

Following Kunle’s death, General Gowon instituted Justice Kazeem’s Panel of Inquiry to unbraid the twist of the February 1 protest. A year later, recommendations were submitted and presented, with an underlining advice that the government should disallow the Nigerian Police Force from using live bullets within academic premises during students’ demonstrations. Gowon’s led Government discarded the recommendation dismissively.

The refusal to go by the recommendation of the inquiries has seen several death cases of students, cases of students shot within the academic environment or battered with brute force in several Nigerian tertiary institutions. The military fascists, indeed, promoted what is today’s savagery and high-handedness in academic environments. Under the insistence of General Obasanjo, another military ruler, in 1978, Justice Uthman’s Panel of Inquiry which was similarly set up following the killing of Akintunde Ojo at UNILAG, made recommendation, also, against the use of live bullets to quell students’ remonstration.

The news of Adepeju’s demise reached far and near and triggered public action. A students’ jihad of protest was organized and lasted four days, to express dissatisfaction with the high-handedness of the police force, which led to Kunle’s death. Students across several institutions gathered in Lagos to express their grief against police brutality and students’ victimization. They occupied the roads, some eventually sitting on bare floor with inscriptions like ‘WE CAN’T STAND SUCH BARBARIC ACTION’, ‘LAMBO IS TRAINED FOR THE MADMEN AND NOBODY ELSE’. But that provoked demonstration was another experience that confirmed the fascist nature of the military government. Gowon’s government, once again, sought to quell the convergence and agitation of students. In action, police troops were on errands and in patches to the agitating presence of enraged students and students’ leaders under the aegis of NUNS who had gathered across numbers of institutions. From the footage of that day’s demonstration (search YouTube), aggressive battering was fiercely unleashed on the students. Students were beaten with female students ruthlessly dragged and kicked off the roads.

Today, commemorating his death and recollecting what transpired in 1971, Kunle Adepeju’s death exposes the current generation to the understanding that every generation of students has had one concern or the other to contend with. Kunle’s remembrance should remind and stabilise students’ understanding that the student community, translating into a Union, has a definite history, which must not become any longer shut from our common knowledge. Adepeju’s death and the myriad of challenges correspondingly posed to the University of Ibadan student community, should become a challenge for students to passionately come together to chart the lines in the continuing pages of history.

We must be reminded that having demand(s) for a better, humane welfare package is an age-long tradition and right. This must begin the bedding thought for students in the desire for a Union that works in our best interest. Going about it, each generation must know that it shall decide actively for itself, whether or not its welfare will be reduced or strengthened. In 1971, it came with a price, unfortunately so. It comes with a price, which starts with the student community having an enlist of demands. As it is often said that no person is a kin who demands one’s silence, or denies one’s right to grow. The price, therefore, that must be paid is that of courage, intellectualism and action.