Dialogue
ASG letter
Student president asks for additional help
Fellow Students,
Once again, your student
government needs you. We
thank you for all your support
thus far, but during election
times we need you most.
First I would like to thank
all of you who helped with the
Blood Drive. 107 units of
blood were collected in all!
Awareness Week (spon­
sored by all the community
colleges in the state through
CCOSAC) is February 20-24.
Monday is dedicated to Rape
Prevention Day. Several
events will be going on to
make students and the com-
’munity aware of this problem.
Tuesday will be Hunger Day;
Wednesday will be Peace Day;
Thursday will be a day to pro­
mote Voter Registration Day.
Then, the week will be crown­
ed off with the staff talent
show on Friday.
The winter term lip sync
contest is scheduled for
February 15. Come have fun
and don’t forget that there will
be a voter registration booth
available.
ASG is also sponsoring a
professional acting tour group
to perform “Same Time Next
Year.” This is a dinner theater
and a full-course dinner will be
served. This event was sub­
sidized in order to set the price
at $6 to make it reasonable
enough for students to attend.
However, student response
has lacked. There are still a
few tickets available.
The serial levy, of course,
is the most important issue of
all. Several activities are being
organized to promote the levy.
First, ASG is sponsoring cam­
pus tours where committee
members will be giving tours
to community members,
showing them what is
available at Clackamas Com­
munity College. These tours
will take place February 19.
This event will be preceded by
the ASG lip sync which is
dedicated to voter registration
this term. We hope to register
as many students as possible.
We are also sponsoring a
College Bowl on March 7.
This will be a debate-format
quiz competition between
students, administration,
faculty and classified staff. Be
there at 11:30 a.m. to cheer on
your student team.
The most important of
our election activities is the
student march from the Col­
lege to Oregon City High
School. There will be a huge
rally on their field with high
school and Clackamas Com­
munity College students. This
is an event which will take
massive support to make it a
success. ASG will host a
barbeque lunch before the
march that Monday (the first
day of spring term) March 26.
Then we will all march down
the hill together. Your support
would be very much ap­
preciated.
A Concerned Student
Committee has been formed.
Any concerned students who
wish to help out with our levy
activities are welcome. Con­
tact the ASG Activities Office
or call ext. 247 for further
details.
Thank you,
John Sagoe
ASG President
Rhodes statue
College not place
to honor racist
To the editor:
I object wholeheartedly to
the placing of the bust of Cecil
Rhodes in our College library.
I do not believe that Cecil
Rhodes should be com­
memorated here. The legacy
of Rhodes in Africa for the
black population is pain,
misery and suffering. His
wealth was gained at great
human cost. I, for one, do not
believe we should com­
memorate individuals solely
because they have made their
mark on society. We should
commemorate those men and
women whose endeavors ad­
vanced the good of all people,
black and white. How about
honoring Martin Luther King?
As a former resident of
Africa who knows the essence
of what struggles are taking
place in South Africa and
Zimbabwe (formerly Rhode­
sia), I find it morally repug­
nant to have to see Cecil
Rhodes every time I enter the
library.
A college library is no
place to honor a racist.
Sincerely,
Eileen Brown
Nigerian coup d’etat spurs commentary
The following article was presented to The
Print by a Nigerian student at Clackamas Com­
munity College. The article deals with the recent
coup d'etat in Nigeria. Because there are many
Nigerian students at the College and Nigeria is the
home for many Americans, we thought the article
would be of interest to our readers.
By Augustine C. Mekkam
For The Print
;In the early hours of Dec. 31, Nigerians
witnessed a dramatic change in government. The
news of the bloodless coup spread like wildfire
throughout the world. The reason for this authen­
tic but undesired publicity by Western media is
still unknown to most people because it is unusual
for Western press to carry any news that seems to
have some good taste about Africa and Africans.
Perhaps, when the journalists sat down to
write and/or broadcast the news, they thought
they were going to blackmail the image of Africa
again with another failure from that part of the
world. What came as a surprise and eventually
brought an end to the frequent flashing of the
news was that Nigerians of all caliber gave their
overwhelming support to the new military govern­
ment, which to Americans is a dictatorship.
A few weeks later, several Western journalists
flew into the supposedly troubled African nation.
To their amazement, the country was full of
jubilating clans of people. Nigerians were in their
most festive mood since their independence in
1960. The press then felt confused because they
could not fetch the best-selling hot news from a
country where people are expected to be running
helter-skelter.
k___________________
Wednesday, February 15, 1984
In all the opinion polls conducted, Nigerians
gave 97 percent support to the new “charismatic
and dynamic” military regime. This discouraged
the newsmen most, and the issue of the coup in
Nigeria quickly went off the air and print media.
The question then is: Why were Nigerians
happy over a sudden and unprecedented change?
The answers are numerous.
In the first place, Nigerians were initially in­
troduced to the parliamentary system of govern­
ment, which ended in shambles and subsequently
formed a remote course for a bloody civil war
fought in the country between 1967 and 1970.
Then Nigeria went through a series of
military regimes for thirteen years. During those
years, she witnessed a steady economy based on
many export commodities.
In 1979, the same military that had already
become a part of the people’s life with their
systematic approach to major issues affecting the
nation internally and externally, felt they had not
done satisfactorily, based on what they had set out
to achieve for the people of Nigeria. It was at this
juncture that they decided to hand control over to
civilians, whom they hoped would do better than
the army. A constitution, similar to the United
States’, was drafted and an election was con­
ducted. Before handing over to the civilians, the
military failed to realize that a close study of the
history of the country demands that a military
rather than civilian administration be installed in
Nigeria.
Secondly, when the civilians assumed power,
they erred by pursuing politics of personalities in­
stead of that of issues. From that moment, the na­
tion’s foreign policy received the most severe set­
back since the civil war. The economy was
neglected by the policy-making bodies and the
country suddenly became a one-product (oil) na­
tion. Even then, the nation still maintained a
balanced trade until the end of 1980. Then the
United States, from whom Nigeria borrowed its
system of government, went on to establish a
diplomatic relationship with the racist government
of South Africa, which is of course against the
policy of Nigeria. The Nigerian diplomats fail­
ed in their bid to deal with the issue. The failure to
handle the matter tactfully led to the withdrawal
of U.S. purchase of oil from the country and the
Nigerian economy went into a slump.
Thirdly, the people vested with authority left
the nation’s problems to seek after their personal
pockets. Bribery, embezzlement, arson, thuggery,
religious fanaticism, smuggling, currency traffick­
ing and a host of other federal crimes were spon­
sored and in some cases committed by the highest
level politicians.
Fourthly,
people’s hopes were completely
shattered after they prayed for the 1983 elections
to come so that they could throw out the shanty
administrators with Shagari at the top. The elec­
tion was rigged and the corrupt and inept politi­
cians returned themselves to power. That was the
greatest sin against the so-called democracy in
black Africa, but the people could not do other­
wise.
Two months after assuming power for the se­
cond term, the deposed president Shehu Shagari
introduced yet another, stiffer measure called
“Physical Measure” to the prevailing austerity
measures. His budget speech was greeted with a
coup. The coup then corresponded to the popular
demand by the people for a change in government.
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