The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has announced plans to organise a national discourse lecture in honour of its pioneer president, late Comrade Danlad Sunday Oladele.
He died on Monday, August 9, 2021, in Abuja at the age of 72.
Oladele, alongside a few others, had in 1980 led the rebirth of the student movement from the proscribed National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS).
The Military Government of General Olusegun Obasanjo had banned student unionism across Nigerian tertiary institutions.
But in a rare act of courage, Oladele led others to write a new constitution and in 1980, founded the National Association of Nigerian Students.
“This effrontery later earned him and most of his colleagues varying consequences such as expulsion, rustication and withholding of their certificates.
“Oladele’s certificate was being withheld by the management of YabaTech as a punitive measure over his activism during his days in the college.”
Chairman of the planning committee for Oladele’s funeral, Senator Dino Melaye, told a news conference in Abuja that the forum of former NANS leaders and the students’ body would hold a lecture on October 20 in Abuja to honour the passage of the late Oladele.
He said the NANS Senate would on October 22, hold a valedictory session in honour of the deceased at the Yabatech College of Technology, Lagos while Oladele’s remains would be buried the following day.
Melaye described the late Oladele as a dogged fighter with non-violent strategies.
“He continued for 41 years fighting against the injustice meted on him by the YABATECH management which withheld his certificate until his death.
“With the intervention of the Senate Committee, the management of YABATECH agreed to present the departed leader with his certificate at their next convocation. Unfortunately, he died two weeks after.
“Oladele spent a larger part of his life mentoring young activists and teaching them non-violent methods in fighting injustice. He was fair in his business dealings as well as generous to neighbours, comrades, classmates and friends.”
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