UNIPORT 4: What Happened To Solidarity?

AMONG those standing trial for killing four innocent University of Port Harcourt undergraduates, namely, Ugonna Kelechi Obuzor, Lloyd Toku, Chiadika Biringa and Tekena Elkanah, are also two undergraduates from the same institution. Joshua Ekpe of the Theatre Arts Department and Abang Cyril of Physics Department allegedly took part in the killings. The duo aside, hundreds of students, actually witnessed the painful incident at Omokiri, Aluu, on October 5, 2012.

The victims were murdered about 10am. But by 7am it was known at Choba, Delta and Abuja campuses that four students were being beaten at Omokiri, just a walking distance away. There was more than enough time for the university authorities to rescue the boys, if the commitment was there. They were killed on a Friday. Their fellow students were on campus and could have stormed Omokiri to rescue them, if the consciousness was there. Videos emanating from the crime scene reveal these disturbing facts:

Firstly, no individual student was seen pleading with or challenging the hoodlums that killed them. In the mammoth crowd, obviously, were students dispassionately recording the gory details with their phone cameras, or just looking on. This is very strange because students behave like a tribe. An injustice against one is an injustice against all. Why would Uniport students look on while non-students kill their mates?

Secondly, the Students Union Government (SUG), or Caretaker Committee, failed to intervene, hearing that four of its members were in distress. Constitutionally, the three arms of the SUG have over 50 elected officials representing on/off campus constituencies. The victims gave their representatives the mandate to act in dire situation. So, where were the president and his officers in the hours between the abduction of the victims and when they were eventually killed?

Thirdly, the university Security Department badly let the victims down. Since students and the police are diametrically opposed, this department is there to maintain law and order in disputes involving students and outsiders. Those heading it are supposed to know the traditional rulers, local police and landlords. At a short notice, the department should be able to mobilise and rescue students. Yet the reverse was the case that fateful day. Even the ubiquitous campus churches, notorious for turning young minds into superstitious primitives, refused to act.

Unconcern is not typical of students’ response when their members are in clear and present danger. It is even unthinkable for students to join outsiders in killing students as the logic behind the Struggle is protecting their own.

We can, therefore, identify the militating circumstance as series of avoidable lapses intimately associated with the victims’ own university community. Every person and institution put in place to protect them from internal and external dangers abysmally failed them. Conspicuous in this inaction include the following institutions:

The Nigerian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (NIFES) refused to help distressed Lloyd, even if the other three victims were not its members? He subscribed to a body of brethren that preached neighbourly love. You cannot convince me that the Pentecostal chapel where he worshipped on campus did not hear that some lives were about to be snuffed out. How did the leadership of this fellowship respond? Exactly what is the role of NIFES in Nigerian universities, talking and no action?

There is no way the Muslim Students Association can exculpate itself from collective guilt because it failed Chiadika? Granted that he wasn’t a Muslim but he still remained a child of God deserving godly mercy. Giving him a second chance would be a better precept. It is hard not to conclude that Muslim students at Uniport are patient with evil as long as it wasn’t a fellow Muslim on the hot stove.

Where was the Orashi Students Association when Ugonna was stripped naked and beaten for hours? Pleading ignorance is unacceptable as he was killed in broad daylight. Orashi students, to the last person, knew him well because he stood out. On a good day, the chap hardly walked the campus without a kinsman stopping to shake his hand, as he was a great one for modesty. An indigent Orashi student was sure of “one square meal” sighting Ugonna in a restaurant.

But on the day he was outnumbered, there was not a single Orashi student to help him make that crucial call to his father who worked with soldiers just 20 minutes drive away. The most painful thing about this monumental tragedy is that a simple phone call could have saved the four boys. The first thing the hoodlums lifted from Ugonna was his expensive BlackBerry Bold 5 phone, which they switched off leaving him with no contact with the outside world – he could not reach his father and his father who repeatedly called since 8.30am over a bank deposit could not get him. Just one call, not two, and we won’t be crying today.

The executive and members of Okrika Students Association did nothing to help Tekena. Why? One thing is certain: a handful of determined Okrika students could have changed the course of event. Seriously handicapped by blows to the forehead, all he could do was gesture for mercy, which earned him more blows. None spoke up for him and the only voices heard were those of his accusers who asked and answered their own questions.

Unconcern is not typical of students’ response when their members are in clear and present danger. It is even unthinkable for students to join outsiders in killing students as the logic behind the Struggle is protecting their own. I give two instances of how students react when one or more of their members are threatened by the outside world.

Were Ugonna, Lloyd, Tekema and Chiadika registered members of their departments/faculties? The answer is yes. Were they faithful members of the Catholic/Pentecostal chapels? Again, the answer is yes. The SUG? Yes. The larger university community? Yes. More importantly, did they have a custodian in their Vice-Chancellor? The answer is yes. Why then did they die like stateless entities?

One, in 1991 we were all in Malabo (pseudonym for University of Calabar) when two students ran three kilometers, there wasn’t even a cell phone then, to cry out that a Malabite was being tortured in town by Agaba Boys loyal to one Mama Ifa. The alarm was sounded and over a thousand undergraduates ran back to the crime scene within the hour. The victim turned out to be the political maverick called Victor Oruche. He was half naked on the ground and tied hands to feet. The machete cuts on his back and head oozed blood. Like what happened at Omokiri, the cultists brought in dogs to tear at his flesh while he screamed in pain. To cut a long story short: We rescued Oruche, inflicted maximum damage on Mama Ifa and by the fourth day of rioting, the military governor reached an understanding with the Nosa/Donald Omagu-led SUG as condition for peace.

Two, the following year, 1992, an early morning pandemonium broke out again in Malabo. I was rustled out of bed by the plaintive cry of: “Sec-Gen., hurry oh! Police don’ invade Malabo finish!” It wasn’t an invasion to be honest, but the anti-robbery squad dared enter Malabo. Led by a short officer who cheerily told me that he was known all over Nigeria as Inspector Ijebu because killing armed robbers was his specialty, the police said they were after some fleeing hoodlums who robbed and killed people the previous night at Odukpani, or was it Obubra? Hoping to escape justice, the robbers ran into Malabo claiming to be students and were sheltered. Inspector Ijebu said he was tired chasing them the whole night: “Hand them over to me, please.” We knew ourselves and within minutes the two robbers were marched down.

But opinion became divided. There were right-wingers who were against handing the suspects to the murderous Nigerian police known to kill students. This school of thought favoured killing the grand evil, that is, the police, and leaving the small evil, being the robbers. But SUG had a constitution. After establishing that the suspects were not our students I told Inspector Ijebu to arrest them on the spot. Then I escorted them out of Malabo through the small Golden Street gate, as the extremists were hungrily eyeing the police assault rifles. Once in the street, Inspector Ijebu’s pistol spat fire and a bullet rendered the ankle of one of the robbers unusable. Without waiting to suffer a similar fate, the second robber began to bleat out names and addresses.

Political theorists are agreed that individual limitation stimulated the need for human society. You subscribe to membership of a community because certain challenges, especially security, could overwhelm you. That is why the welfare of citizens is paramount in an organised community. The survival of every civilisation is contingent on the discharge of this sacred duty.

Were Ugonna, Lloyd, Tekema and Chiadika registered members of their departments/faculties? The answer is yes. Were they faithful members of the Catholic/Pentecostal chapels? Again, the answer is yes. The SUG? Yes. The larger university community? Yes. More importantly, did they have a custodian in their Vice-Chancellor? The answer is yes. Why then did they die like stateless entities? Can the university community they came from explain their sad and lonely end?

Okay, let us agree that what happened took everyone by surprise. But we can, in good conscience, ask this painful question: what efforts is this community making to get justice for its murdered members? None. Many that participated in the gruesome killings still walk free, as everything has been swept under the carpet.

Eke writes from Port Harcourt