FORTY-SEVEN years ago, Nigerian students took a stand against military dictatorship. They insisted that every child should have a right and access to education. They, therefore, rejected increases in school and feeding fees, insisting that education should not be commercialised.
An enraged military regime sent out soldiers against the students. What followed was a massacre.
The Murtala-Obasanjo regime zeroed in on four student leaders: Segun Okeowo, Bukar Mbaya, Offiong Aqua, and Ekpein Appah, leader of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, Students Union. Appah had most infuriated the Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo and his Deputy, General Shehu Yar’ Adua.
He said the students also felt that if Ghana, which did not have the resources of Nigeria, including oil wealth, could provide free education, there was no reason why Nigeria could not do same. The students insisted that there could be no increase in school fees without the military consulting them, their lecturers and parents.
However, while the first three were generally known, Appah appeared to be a shadowy figure. After their detention for months and expulsion from school, he seemed to have fallen off the earth’s surface.
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To mark the 47th year of the uprising which comes up this Thursday, April 17, 2025, I drew Appah out of his shell in Kiama, Bayelsa State, to present the uncommunicative hero to the world.
He had attended primary schools in Kiama, Abeokuta, Lagos, Enugu and Kaduna; secondary school in Yenagoa and higher school in Port Harcourt, before being admitted into UNIBEN in the 1976/77 Session.
His active participation in student unionism was fortuitous. He was an off-campus student and the Students Union had decided that those students should be represented in the parliament. So, he came to represent the off-campus students.
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Appah teamed up with some other students to present a candidate for the union presidency. Their candidate won, but turned out to be a disappointment. So Appah moved a motion for his impeachment. The union then decided to re-write its constitution. He was made the Chair of the Constitution Review Committee. The Committee visited universities like Ibadan and Lagos to apprise itself of their student union constitutions. When he returned, he found that in his absence, the student union had decided to put in place a Caretaker Committee, and he had been presented as the Chairman.
This was when the NUNS was consulting various groups against the military’s decision to commercialise education. UNIBEN students were in full support of the student agitations and Appah immediately joined other national student leaders. They met a delegation of the military regime led by General Yar’Adua. In Ekpein’s analysis, the talks broke down because General Obasanjo believed that Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was agitating to be elected President on a programme for free education, was the brain behind the students’ agitation. So, the ruling Supreme Military Council was insistent that it would make no compromise.
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Appah insisted there was no such external influence, and that indeed, there was no influence from any quarters as the students were well informed about local and international issues which were often debated across campuses. He said the NUNS position was that if the leakages in public expenditure were blocked, there would be enough money to fund and maintain free education. The NUNS had listed some of those leakages.
Appah said of his release: “One day, the warder said I should come out and I was just left outside the Kirikiri (prison) gates. I walked to the road, and took a taxi to my brother’s residence at Number 230, Ojo Road, Ajegunle.”
He said the students also felt that if Ghana, which did not have the resources of Nigeria, including oil wealth, could provide free education, there was no reason why Nigeria could not do same. The students insisted that there could be no increase in school fees without the military consulting them, their lecturers and parents.
Appah said when ABU students and other citizens were shot in Zaria, the anger of the students and the Nigerian populace could no longer be contained.
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Students decided nationwide to carry out symbolic burial of the victims. Appah told me what happened next in UNIBEN: “We had two campuses: Ekenwa and Ugbowo. We carried coffins from Ekenwa to Ugbowo. The police stopped us on the Lagos-Benin highway and ordered us back. The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Aliyu Attah, who later became IG (Inspector General of Police, 1990-93) told us the police would not allow us to proceed. I told him he should either allow us or shoot us.
“He argued that the burial we wanted to carry out was merely symbolic, so there was no issue whether we actually carried out the burial or not. I replied that in Africa, burials can be symbolic. It was a tense situation as some of the students were military personnel on in-service training and had guns. I myself carried a knife for self-defence.
“Attah then told us the Commissioner of Police, Etim Inyang, later IG (1983-86) wanted to see us. We told Attah we would see the CP but would not trek to the Police Command. So, they provided vehicles. We had started our march at 7am and did not leave the Police Command until 3pm. They carried us back to Ekenwa where we held a strong rally. During the rally, only one car was destroyed. It was an official car with the inscription, ‘Bendel State Hospital Board’, which was burnt.”
The regime which prided itself as being strongly anti-Apartheid, was livid when Appah in a letter to General Obasanjo wrote that while Apartheid South Africa was killing Blacks, he could not use Nigerian guns to kill Nigerians.
On the current state of the country, including 18.3 million out-of-school children, Appah told me in our April 12, 2025 interview: “Wherever we are, whether in the village, town or country, we must be able to fight for it. Until you die, there is no rest. Until he died, Fidel Castro did not rest, Mandela did not rest. We must be ready to die for our society; Jesus died for his country.”
Appah was invited to see the Police Commissioner from where he was whisked to the Kingsway Road, Lagos offices of the secret Nigeria Security Organisation (NSO). He was then moved to the NSO Headquarters on Awolowo Road where he met detained lecturers like Ola Oni, Bade Onimode and Laoye Sanda. He was later moved to the Kirikiri Maximum Prison where he spent a total of 49 days. He said he had a lot of introspection in prison as he had no access to books.
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Appah said of his release: “One day, the warder said I should come out and I was just left outside the Kirikiri (prison) gates. I walked to the road, and took a taxi to my brother’s residence at Number 230, Ojo Road, Ajegunle.”
After schools were reopened, he was about taking his examinations when an announcement was made expelling him. He was not allowed to return to school until 1982 when he was admitted by the University of Ibadan, to read Classics and Philosophy.
The Ibadan students were unaware of his presence on the campus until the campus press came to interview him. His former co-detainee, Bade Onimode, a Professor, then called him and said: “You can’t hide.”
On the current state of the country, including 18.3 million out-of-school children, Appah told me in our April 12, 2025 interview: “Wherever we are, whether in the village, town or country, we must be able to fight for it. Until you die, there is no rest. Until he died, Fidel Castro did not rest, Mandela did not rest. We must be ready to die for our society; Jesus died for his country.”
