Power struggle in AASU

A POWER struggle has emerged in the All-Africa Students Union (AASU) threatening the removal of the union’s secretariat from Ghana.
Sources have indicated to the Daily Graphic that Libya, Nigeria and a third country have initiated moves to host the secretariat of the union, which has been in Ghana since 1972.
Currently, one group led by Abdul Karim Hakib, who says he is the acting General Secretary, operates from the AASU Secretariat while another group led by Mr Oludare Ogunlana, who says he is the substantive General Secretary, operates from outside the secretariat.
Mr Hakib told the Daily Graphic that he was made acting General Secretary following the passage of a resolution at a summit in September 2009 due to the long stay in office of Mr Ogunlana.
However, Mr Ogunlana said Mr Hakib’s current position was illegal and unconstitutional, and that he (Ogunlana) was still the substantive Secretary General as he was elected at the union’s congress in 2000, adding that since “2000 there has not been any congress to elect anyone to the position”.
“A resolution passed at a summit in September 2009 says that Ogunlana should no longer be the Secretary General because he has overstayed in office. That is how come I was made the acting Secretary General,” Mr Hakib said, and added that of the five people that were elected in 2000 only Ogunlana was still in office.
He said the AASU held elections every four years, but since Mr Ogunlana took over as General Secretary in 2000, he had not organised any election, and indicated that the planned congress slated for Nigeria in August this year under the leadership of Ogunlana was not recognised by the AASU members.
Mr Hakib, who said he was the substantive Deputy General Secretary, explained that there was no problem with the AASU and that everything was going on smoothly.
“We are not in any crisis as anybody would think,” he emphasised, indicating that the AASU went about its activities legally or “else the government and the African Union would not recognise us”.
He denied that he led people to invade the AASU secretariat to get Mr Ogunlana out.
For his part, Mr Ogunlana said he had been in power since 2000 because there had not been funds to hold elections.
He said he had, therefore, written to the Prof. John Evans Atta Mills to intervene to solve the problem at the AASU secretariat, since efforts to get the matter resolved had not been successful.
“Sir, it is very sad to note that up till date, no concrete measure has been taken to have this issue resolved. At present, as the Secretary General, I cannot access or operate from the office provided for the AASU by the Ghana Government because this group led by the former NUGS representative are still illegally occupying the secretariat and have refused me entry,” the letter to President Mills said.
It explained that the challenges of the AASU since 2004 had been the inability of the union to hold the congress due to financial constraints and lack of sponsors, adding that “this has kept all the elected organisations/countries since 2000 in Libya in office till date”.
The letter said while other elected organisations left the AASU secretariat due to financial difficulties, Nigeria had encouraged her representatives not to abandon the secretariat until the 10th congress in Abuja between August 23 and 28, 2010.
It noted that in the midst of the crisis the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, had offered to host and support the 10th AASU congress.
It said AASU appreciated in no little measure the support of the Ghana Government towards sustaining the union in the country since 1972, and that “we would not want the secretariat to be moved from Ghana to another country”.
In July, 1972, African students met at the University of Science and Technology (UST) [now KNUST] in Ghana to discuss the issue of bringing together all the students on the continent in order to co-ordinate their efforts towards the socio-economic and political advancement of their continent.
That historic meeting laid the foundation for the establishment of the All Africa Students Union (AASU), a non-governmental international students union.
Subsequently, a larger meeting was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1973 to concretise the outcome of the Kumasi and Dar es Salaam meetings as the first two congresses of the AASU.
The third congress was convened in Alexandria, Egypt in 1974 while the fourth was held in Accra, Ghana in 1976 with the fifth being held in Libya in 1978. The sixth congress was in Ethiopia, 1982, the seventh in Luanda, Angola in 1987, the eighth in Accra, Ghana in 1992 and the ninth in Tripoli, Libya in 2000.