Arogundade To Present New Book On Student Unionism, Leadership

A former National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) president, journalist, and former chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Lagos State, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, is set to present to the public his new book titled: Breaking Coconut with Your Head. (Akowe’s Journey to Student Unionism).

A statement made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday signed by Adeola Soetan stated that the public presentation of the book would be held today at the event centre off Lateef Jakande Road, between Government Technical College and Afrikan Shrine, Ikeja, Lagos.According to the statement, the book is Arogundade’s voyage to his remarkable past as a radical students’ union leader beginning from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) first as the secretary general of the union before he later became the president of NANS at 23 years old in 1983/1984 during the military rule of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

The statement further read: “The book is a collector’s item revealing in detail the past heroic collective struggles of Nigerian students in defending their right to free, qualitative education, good welfare condition, democratic management of institutions, independent unionism and good governance.

“The 272 pages publication is a real-life story of sacrifice, determination, risk-taking, battle with guns with revolutionary ideas, and how Arogundade’s leadership and his generation of NANS showed courage and principle backed by leftist revolutionary and radical ideology to sustain the struggle with victories and challenges at great sacrifices – illegal detention, abduction, arrests, expulsion.”