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Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has condemned the intimidation and rustication of more than 25 students by the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), over a planned demonstration. The group demanded their immediate reinstatement and an end to this crackdown on student activism in Nigeria.
NSUK suspended the students for one academic session on charges of “criminal conspiracy, inciting public disturbance, and cyberbullying.” Their only offence was being members of a WhatsApp group created last year to discuss and mobilise for a peaceful protest against the university’s arbitrary introduction of a third semester and imposition of an additional fee of ₦20,000 per course for registering and resitting “carry-over” exams.
Rather than engaging with the legitimate concerns of students, the university – under the leadership of Prof. Sa’adatu Liman – resorted to surveillance and coercion as a response. It utilised security operatives to infiltrate the WhatsApp group, monitor conversations, and identify targeted students for administrative and brute discipline.
For participating in conversations in the group, students who spoke to CAPPA said they were tracked, hounded on campus, arrested, handcuffed, and chained at their feet before being dragged to the police station, where their phones were seized. They endured harrowing nights in detention before securing bail – only to be slapped with rustication letters in December 2024.
“CAPPA condemns these inhumane actions and the blatant violation of students’ fundamental rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, as enshrined in Sections 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, as amended,” submitted the group in a statement.
It went further: “Sadly, the repression at NSUK is part of a deeper rot. The university’s nullification of its last student union election further exposes its growing authoritarian culture. When the likely result was not going to favour the management’s handpicked candidate, democratic process was simply discarded.
“Higher learning institutions should uphold democracy, critical thinking, and intellectual freedom, providing spaces where students can engage in discourse without fear of retaliation. Instead, we are witnessing an alarming trend where these institutions across the country are rapidly transforming into despotic environments, working overtime to erode student resistance and enforce a culture of silence.
“We are not unaware that the endgame of this deliberate crackdown is to strip undergraduates of critical consciousness, eliminate opposition to the rising cost of education and crumbling learning conditions, and ultimately produce graduates who are nothing more than zombies for the broader society – incapable of questioning or challenging systemic injustices. But what is a society without critical thinkers? A nation that suppresses independent thought and inquiry only breeds conformity, docility, and decay.
“CAPPA stands in full solidarity with all victimised students of Nasarawa State University, Keffi and commends them for taking the initiative to organise against exploitative policies. We call on all stakeholders and unions in the education sector, along with civil society organisations, to speak out against this injustice.
“We demand the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of all suspended students. Furthermore, we urge collective action to halt the growing commercialisation of public education and criminalisation of student organising. This creeping dictatorship in Nigerian universities must be stopped.”
