Ali Must Go – How 50 kobo Caused Nationwide Prot£st in NÎGERIA in the year 1978

Ali Must Go – How 50 kobo Caused Nationwide Prot£st in NÎGERIA in the year 1978

In 1978, Nigerian students staged a prøtēst (Ali Must Go) which, till today, remains the mother of all Alutas (student prøtēsts) in Nigeria.

It was a nationwide agit@tion that brought the National Union of Nigeria Students (NUNS) into an open confrontation with the Milit@ry Gøvernmēñt of Olusegun Obasanjo and the stern looking mën of the Nigerian Ārmy.

The bløødy episode which popularized the PØWĒR of Nîgèrîáñ students started in April 1978, when the Gøvernmēñt asked the students to make more contributions by adding 50 Kobo to their cost of meal per day.

The 50 Kobo increment meant that their cost of meal would rise from N1.50 to N2.00.

The then Ministēr of Education, Ahmadu Ali was at the centre of the matter until everything coll@psed on his Hëad.

Following the announcement, which didn’t go down well with the National Union of Nîgeria Students, Segun Okeowo, the then PRĒSIDENT of the union made a move to address the issue.

The students held a meeting in Maiduguri, Ilorin and finally in Calabar before taking a bold step to çhāllengë the milit@ry Gøvernmēñt on the increment.

All along, Ali was trying to make the students believe that the increment was made by the Supreme Milit@ry Council and not by the Minîstry of Education.

However, when the NUNS realized the Gøvernmēñt was not willing to reverse its decision, they resorted to dem0nstration and that was the moment things began to fall apart.

And the Pol!ce fir£d the first shot

The first day of the prøtēst brought the students and the Pol!ce face to face at the University of Lagos (UNILAG). A student was fîred in the leg and bl£d to d£@th because Lagos University Teaching Hospit@l (LUTH) and Orthopedic hospital, Igbobi rēfusęd to treat him.

That infuriated Okeowo, the national students union president who immediately sent a message to his counterparts at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Ibadan and other Federal Universities.

The students’ prot£sts escalated and for over a week, they engaged themselves in an open confrontation with the Pol!ce and the Ārmy.

Touched by the incident the student sh0t d£@d by the pol!ce in UNILAG, the students, went on a rampage and about eight other students were reportedly guññ£d down in Zaria by Nigerian sold!ers.

The mü.rder of the students caused more probl£ms for the Gøvernmēñt as the students rēfusęd to be cowed by the gun-wielding murder£rs sent to put the situation under control.

The proteπst slogan, ALI MUST GO rent the air as the Minister of Education was believed to be the cause of the crisis that led to the students’ de@ths.

After one week of the nationwide proytest, the Federal Gøvernmēñt shūt down all universities and students were advised to leave the campus.

The Segun Okeowo led students union and the ALI MUST GO saga remains a notable students led aluta in Nigeria.

In fact, the history of students unionism in Nigeria will largely be incomplete without mentioning Segun Okeowo and the infamous protest that demonstrated the strength of Nigerian students