Kabiru Mohammed and the falsification of history
-By Abdul Mahmud
Kabiru Mohammed’s rejoinder, ‘’Re-delusion: Dino Melaye and The New
Activism’’, is a sad commentary on the state of our tertiary education.
Reading his grammatically-challenged piece, Kabiru Mohammed brimmed
with such ignorance and stupidity that left me utterly bewildered. Much
as I have sympathy for him, I am gravely worried about
the future of a nation that consciously mis-educated his generation.
This piece is not a sadistic analysis of Kabiru Mohammed’s education nor
is it one that seeks to make a caricature of him. Whilst I empathise
with him, I enjoin him to be humble to admit his stupidity and
ignorance.
In his unintelligent piece, Kabiru makes outrageous
claims. My initial temptation on reading his piece was to ignore his
claims and move on to addressing important issues of our polity. But, it
would be defeatist of knowledge to allow his kind to unfurl falsehoods
and untruths as totems of worship, or to allow pathological liars, or
those the renowned French historian, Joseph de Maistre once described as
‘’la secte’’- ‘’all those who throw dust in the eyes of the people’’-
or seek to pull wool across the eyes of consumers of knowledge-to pass
themselves off as the purveyors of truth.
Therefore, I find it
historical important to scrutinise Kabiru Mohammed’s claims and to
expose them for what they are: falsehoods.
Falsehood 1: ‘’ In
order to put the record straight for posterity purpose that, (sic) I
Tijani Kabiru Mohammed never started or began the decadence era of the
state capture of the National Association of Nigerian Students
(NANS)’’(sic).
Fact: Right, let’s assume Kabiru’s tenure
didn’t signal the death of progressive students politics, at least his
factional presidency represented a significant aspect of the decadent
era of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) that began
in 1994 when right-wing elements sponsored by General Abacha and
actively supported by pseudo leftists and renegades of the Democratic
Socialist Movement captured that organisation at its annual convention
held at the Obafemi Awolowo University.
Falsehood 2: ‘’it is
on record that …during Olusegun Mayegun regime (sic) he was (sic)
invited to Jos. (sic) Plateau state Military state Military Junta where
he had an hand shake and dinner with the then Number 2 man of Nigeria,
Rear Admiral Aikhomu a military jinta that the ideological base of the
leftist you claimed to’’ (sic)
Fact: Rubbish. It’s idiotic to
describe Segun Mayegun as a hireling of the then military junta of
General Babaginda. That he shook hands with Rear Admiral Aikhomu, so
what? I was at that April 1992 ‘’Conference on the Future of Higher
Education in Nigeria’’ organised by the then Minister of Education, late
Professor Babs Fafunwa at the University of Jos. Late 1991, shortly
after my release from Kirikiri prison, I was invited by the military
junta to deliver a paper at the said conference which I declined for the
following reasons: first, I demanded that all students who were
expelled following the May 1991 national protest for the funding and
democratisation of education in Nigeria be recalled; secondly, that the
criminal charges of arson and attempted murder filed against me, Kayode
Ogundamisi and eleven student activists of the University of Jos at the
Miscellaneous Offences and Military Tribunal sitting in Jos be dropped;
and lastly that my colleague, comrade and friend, Kayode Ogundamisi who
was languishing in Jos Prison at the time be released. The military
junta stuck to their guns. And in April 1992, Olusegun Mayegun, who took
over from me in January 1992 at the University of Calabar, stormed the
conference at the University of Jos to demand that the conference
proceedings be halted. With over fourteen thousand Great Jossites
mobilised for a showdown with the military junta, the state-sponsored
delegates to the conference insisted that there would be no conference
WITHOUT the participation of leaders of the National Association of
Nigerian Students (NANS). For Nigerian students, it was a moral victory
wrought from the crucibles of struggle. A conference that was designed
to meet the set objectives of the ruling military junta was turned
against it. No thanks to Abdul Mahmud, Olusegun Mayegun, Professor
Anthony Olusanya (then President of Lagos State University Students
Union), Kayode Ogundamisi and Steve Aluko whose rousing speeches moved
the table against the enemies of our students.
That Olusegun
Mayegun was duly recognised and invited to the high table by the
representative of the same military junta that banned the National
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) is today a testimony to the
courage of that generation of student leaders and activists. Let me add
that three weeks later, Mayegun led a national students protest against
attempt by IBB to remove oil subsidy. That singular act of bravery
fetched Olusegun Mayegun a place in Kuje Prison, alongside our heroes:
late Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana, late Beko Kuti and Baba Omojola and I
was then saddled with the responsibility of moving across Nigeria as the
immediate past president of the organisation to mobilise against his
arrest and subsequent trial. Beat that Kabiru Mohammed and eat your
words!
Falsehood 3: ‘’I met Dino Melaye in 1993 when I was
newly admitted into Ahmadu Bello University and he has been a man of his
own who had his political and social followers, in 1999 when I became
the President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, then the
likes of Victor Arokoyo…. brought up a proposals (sic) for
partnership’’…
Fact 1: Victor Arokoyo, named by Kabiru
Mohammed, posted the following to Kabiru Mohammed’s Facebook wall: ‘’I
was never part of any deal to make you work with Dino group. I don’t
know what group you are talking about…I can testify that Dino’s active
participation in NANS started after the death of Moses with his
appointment as ASSISTANT by the NANS Acting President, Kabiru Tijani
Mohammed. I remember vividly that Dino had the largest ID ever to
display his post. Dino knows himself and some of us also know him well
irrespective of the attempt to reconstruct history by Kabiru ’’.
Fact 2: Kabiru Mohammed and Dino Melaye were simply professional
students; and with poor economic backgrounds they took to mercantilist
students’ unionism to survive the harsh university environment. If both
were freshmen in 1993, what were they still doing at the Ahmadu Bello
University in 1999?
Falsehood 4: What record of my
incarceration do you have? I challenged (sic) you for this and if in
doubt ask Steve Aluko about myself, Aminu Mahmud, Salihu Lukman’’….
Fact: Kabiru is a name-dropper. The Aminu Mahmud he referred to in his
rejoinder is me. Having studied the history of the National Association
of Nigerian Students (NANS) and mastered the names of some of its
leaders, he simply forgot that my full names are Abdul Aminu Mahmud. So,
how could he have known me when he gained admission into the Ahmadu
Bello University three years after I had left the university and had
become a lawyer? Only a liar can look into the past and make such
outrageous claim.
Since my piece appeared last week I have
received calls, texts and emails from younger activists who were angered
by my selective naming of those I marked out as true activists of
yesterday. I am grateful to them for providing clarity to some of the
issues I have raised here and helping to situate the leadership of the
National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) post-1994 within proper
historical perspective and context. True, the progressive movement
recovered from the state sponsored defeat it suffered in Ife in 1994 and
rebounded with its 1995 convention at Ago-Iwoye where the first and
only female NANS president emerged. For the records, I am setting out
here the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students
(NANS) from its inception in 1980. I am doing this for two chief
reasons: firstly, to situate Nigerian students movement, post-the 1978
the Ali-Must-Go students protests within its ideological and progressive
context; and secondly, to provide historical aid to younger students
activists of today who yearn to have the past as guide to their future
activist endeavours. The list is as follows:
National Association of Nigerian Students of Progressive Activists (1980-1994):
a. Tanimu Kurfi, Interim Chairman (1980/1981)
b. Chris Mamah, first elected President (1981/1982)
c. Late Chris Abashi, President ( 1982/1983)
d. Lanre Arogundade, President (1983/1984)
e. Emma Ezeazu , President (1984/1988)
f. Salihu Lukman, President (1988/1989)
g. Opeyemi Bamidele, President (1989/1990)
h. Abdul Mahmud, President (1990/1991)
i. Olusegun Mayegun, President (1992/1993)
j. Nasiru Kura, President (1993/1994)
The era of state capture of the National Association of Nigerian
students (NANS) effectively began in 1994 with the Denis
Inyang-leadership, and the years of intense struggles waged by the
progressive left students movement between 1995 and 1999 which led to
the factionalisation of the organisation elicited scant respect for the
reactionary movement that became increasingly active following the
unbanning of the National Association of Nigerian Students late 1993.
National Association of Nigerian Students of Reactionary faction (1994-2000):
1. Denis Inyang, President (1994/1995)
2. Baba Kasala, President (1995/1996)
3. Oludare Ogunlana, President (1997/1998)
4. Bashir Abdullahi (1997/1998)
5. Late Moses Oisakede/Kabiru Mohammed, Presidents (1998/2000)
National Association of Nigerian Students of Progressive faction (1994-2000):
1. Comfort Idika, President (1995/1996)
2. Ropo Ewenla, President (1996/1997)
3. Ujor Suleman, President (1997/1998)
4. Ken Henshaw, President (1998/2000)
Finally, in 2000, both factions of the National Association of Nigerian
Students were united at the Port Harcourt Unity Convention which
produced the reactionary leadership of a certain Philip Shuaibu and from
there on the organisation began its rapid descent into utter abyss. The
claims of connection of Kabiru Mohammed and Dino Melaye to the radical
progressive tendency within the National Association of Nigerian
Students (NANS) are neither supported by historical facts nor affirmed
by the testimonies of witnesses of that era. Kabiru Mohammed in his
rejoinder confessed his connection to the leadership of the National
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). Let’s read him: ‘’In 1995
Mohammed Kazalla came up with a programme at the first senate meeting of
NANS… that sail through (sic) and it was implemented that gave room for
the entire Nigerian students to participate in the National Youth
Summit that brought the leadership of NANS to the military junta at the
International Conference Centre in 1995’’. If any student leader
romanced with Ibadan politicians like Elder Oyelese and Ariseokola who
he mentioned in his rejoinder, it was his own ‘’Senior Comrade’’ Oludare
Ogunlana who led a NANS faction from the University of Ibadan. Kabiru
Mohammed wrote about the ‘’ARAFAT’’programme that unabashedly defended
the commercialisation of education. Contrast with the NANS Charter of
Demands that Comfort Idika who in the same year actively campaigned
against the commercialisation of education. Progressive struggles are
built on historical landmarks. Intriguingly, yesterday’s landmarks do
not bear the footprints of impostors like Dino Melaye and Kabiru
Mohammed.
Follow me at my twitter handle @Abdulmahmud1
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