A civil society organization, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), has strongly condemned the recent rustication of students by Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK) over their involvement in a planned demonstration.
CAPPA is demanding the immediate reinstatement of the affected students and an end to what it describes as an alarming crackdown on student activism in Nigeria.
The students were suspended for one academic session by the university authorities, who cited charges of “criminal conspiracy, inciting public disturbance, and cyberbullying.” However, CAPPA maintains that the students’ only “offence” was participating in a WhatsApp group created to discuss and mobilize for a peaceful protest against the university’s new policy to introduce a third semester and impose an additional N20,000 fee per course for resitting carry-over exams.
According to CAPPA, security operatives infiltrated the WhatsApp group, monitored conversations, and identified students who were later targeted for disciplinary action. Several affected students reported being tracked, apprehended on campus, and arrested. They were allegedly handcuffed, chained, and detained, with their phones seized before securing bail. Despite enduring these ordeals, they were ultimately rusticated in December 2024.
Describing the university’s actions as inhumane and unconstitutional, CAPPA cited Sections 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, which guarantee the fundamental rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.
“The repression at NSUK is part of a deeper rot,” CAPPA stated, highlighting the university’s nullification of its last student union election when the likely outcome did not favor the management’s preferred candidate.
The organization warned that such repressive measures aim to stifle critical thinking and student activism, fostering a culture of conformity and suppressing opposition to rising education costs and deteriorating learning conditions.
“A nation that suppresses independent thought breeds conformity, docility, and decay,” CAPPA asserted, calling on all stakeholders in the education sector, including unions and civil society groups, to resist the commercialisation of public education and the criminalisation of student organising.
CAPPA expressed full solidarity with the affected NSUK students, commending their efforts to resist exploitative policies, and demanded their immediate and unconditional reinstatement. The group also called for collective action to halt the growing authoritarianism in Nigerian universities.
“This creeping dictatorship in Nigerian universities must be stopped,” CAPPA concluded.
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