The ‘Ali-Must-Go’ uprising wasn’t just a student protest. It was the concrete foundation that shattered the myth of military invincibility in Nigeria. From 1981 to 1993, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and its relentless struggles demystified the uniformed despots, forging the psychological armor needed for a nation to rise against its oppressors. That fight, long before June 12, 1993, set the stage for a reckoning.
Yesterday, Friday, June 12, marked 33 years since General Ibrahim Babangida’s military junta annulled Nigeria’s freest, fairest, and most credible presidential election. On June 23, 1994, business mogul and politician Chief Moshood Abiola was illegally arrested, held in solitary confinement without trial for four years by the brutish, blood-thirsty, kleptomaniac regime of General Sani Abacha. The struggle to actualize the June 12 mandate rekindles bitter memories and pain in the hearts of many Nigerians. Yet it remains a glorious chapter in Nigeria’s fight for democracy. No wonder June 12 is now a public holiday.
Awards have been handed to some who fought for June 12. Others have been declared “Heroes and Heroines.” But questions linger: What criteria determined these heroes? Why did they struggle? Was it truly for democracy, or because they fell out with the despots? Or was it simply to replace one tyranny with another? If the government is serious about June 12, it must declassify security reports on the annulment, so emancipatory forces can study and act on them.
What is indisputable is that the June 12 struggles predated the 1993 election. Their remotest foundation was laid by the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), which led the April 1978 ‘Ali-Must-Go’ uprising. That uprising, as I’ve argued elsewhere, “initiated an unprecedented historical consciousness among Nigerian students,” marked a turning point in student-state relations, and was a watershed for radical, pro-people, anti-state unionism. It shattered the belief that military governments were immune to popular struggles. It birthed NANS. And it changed the student motto from “Commendation, Condemnation & Recommendation” to “An Injury to One is An Injury to All” and “Aluta Continua, Victoria Acerta.”
In 1989, NANS organized a nationwide ‘Great Anti-SAP Uprising.’ It was fierce. One pamphlet read: “Nigerian students cannot afford to watch any longer while their lives are being battered. We have appealed and demanded. They have refused to bugle. We have been patient enough. Everywhere the clarion call is for ACTION NOW!” Protesters sang Peter Tosh songs: “Down pressor man where you gonna run to on that day…” and “Everyone is crying out for peace, none is crying out for justice. I don’t want no peace, I need equal rights and justice.”
The “Ango Must Go” protests at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and the nationwide uprisings that followed, generated popular disdain for military rule. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), backed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), declared June 4, 1986, a day of mourning with peaceful protest marches. That march was aborted by a naked show of force. But it portrayed the Babangida regime in bad light, shattered its propaganda of being a “human rights” and “pro-democracy” entity, and drew the battle line between the military and popular forces.
The junta’s proscription of the NLC angered student leaders. One student told the Civil Liberties Organization: “We have to drag these people out of office; if necessary, we must be prepared to die in the process.” On April 10, 1988, students led by NANS began a nationwide protest against a 2.5 kobo increase in petrol prices. Placards read: “Babangida, agent of imperialism”; “Restore oil subsidy”; and “No to SAP.” Workers joined, exasperating the despots. Colonel David Mark charged: “Students cannot go on rampage just because of 2.5 kobo increase in fuel prices. How many students own cars?” Despite the proscription, workers protested across the country. Students and citizens were maimed, killed, arrested, and tortured. Yet the protests showed that the struggle against military authoritarianism could not be aborted or proscribed.
When police threatened to shoot protesters, they beckoned: “Join us or shoot us!” When police fired, protesters replied: “How many can you kill?” Others sang: “If we die today, we shall die no more.” In some places, police abandoned their posts. In others, they tacitly supported protesters. The military was eventually brought in to suppress the uprising. The ‘Great Anti-SAP Uprising’ generated huge distrust of the military. Rank-and-file soldiers were accused of benefiting from despotism. The African Concord of July 17, 1989, reported: “There is no denying the groundswell of cynicism and distrust civilians now harbour against the military, and their mounting readiness to defy military authorities, confronting soldiers eye-ball-to-eye-ball. The military uniform that used to make civilians hold soldiers in awe has lost its mystique.”
In 1990, students protested against World Bank demands to scrap some university courses. The protests were suspended after the April 22, 1990, abortive coup of Major Gideon Orkar, which sought to excise some states from Nigeria. NANS posited: “Successive military regimes in Nigeria have proved to be guilty of the general malaise of power-drunk autocracy, violation of human rights, kleptomaniac corruption, and unpatriotic capitulation to imperialism.”
These narratives show that the struggles for June 12 were essentially struggles against military rule, for civil rule, democracy, and development. They were the continuation and culmination of previous struggles spearheaded by students. The ‘Ali-Must-Go’ uprising laid the concrete foundation. The formation of NANS and its struggles from 1981 to 1993 demystified the military, developing the psychological basis for opposition. Former student leaders and activists were in the forefront of the June 12 struggles. They populated the print media, civil society organizations, and law firms, bringing their wealth of experience from the students’ movement. Most journalists illegally arrested and detained were products of that movement. So were those who commanded the June 12 street protests. June 12 was part of the trajectory of the war against military rule in Nigeria.
Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf worked as deputy director, Cabinet Affairs Office, The Presidency, and retired as General Manager (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet).
