NANS, National Association of Nigerian Students???

By; Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo

September 11^th 2014, being the date that marked the 27^th annual convention of the National Association of Nigerian Students NANS. The election that brought the 2014/2015 executives into power was said by witnesses of the convention and some of the NANS stakeholders to be not much of an election if at all any election did take place.

NANS is culturally known to have its stakeholders decide as to “what happens when and whom stays where,” in the union. The result which yielded a 40 year old to being the next president of the union is said to under-went the traditional pattern as the following evidences unveils.

Corruption;

December 2013 was the due date which the NANS annual convention was supposed to take place. Of course the stake holders did not decide to that, it was supposed to (as I said), but the approval of it was not made by them. The incumbents nevertheless needed an excuse for not calling for an election as their tenure rang the bell, so they hid beneath the shade of the strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) which were as at that moment ongoing.

After the resolutions to the strikes, the convention was set to take place in the month of March 2014, but yet again the stakeholders were yet to approve of this month, so then NANS President Yinka Gbadebo Ayefele (also a 40 year old man) decided to make the reason for postponement of the election as in regards to the foregoing National conference which lasted for a period of 4 months.

August 14^th was another date for the supposedly convention to take place, but as I heard the Ebola epidemic was the result to which the then postponement of the election was made.

Finally, September 11^th, the arrival date (to the convention ground in Asaba, Delta state). Accreditation of delegates which was supposed to be through the next day, took 4 days to be through with. The convention was brought to an end on the 16^th of the same month, which brings one to dwell on the question of, ‘why would it take about a week for the students’ election to take place when it takes just a day for the nation’s president to get elected?’ The answer to this question of course is one quiet thrilling.

NANS is a union of students which was dissected into 4 distinctive zones, zone ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ with each zone representing the schools from its region. Zone ‘A’ which comprises of the high institutions of the entire North-West, North-central and a portion of the North-East (Bauchi/Gombe only) is said to have owned the flag of contest for the office of president in this last election. The flag of presidency which shifted from the custody of zone ‘D’ (South-West/ a portion of South-South) is expected to move again next year to zone ‘B’ (South-East/ the remaining portion of South-South), and later to zone ‘C’ (the middle belt and the major portion of North-East). Each time a zone owns the flag of the presidency, it’s expected that, that years’ annual convention be hosted by it. The previous convention which brought the outgoing administration to office took place in Akwa Ibom state (South-East, zone ‘B’) instead in any of the states in zone ‘D’. I couldn’t find a worse process that best defies democracy.

The Convention Planning Committee CTC was said to be a team of non-students entirely. The witness which happens to be a serving director of contact and mobilization NANS zone ‘A’ in person of Sulaiman Yashi, told me that the chairman whom headed the CTC, comrade Igwe was a non-student. More of what the director told me is that out of the almost 239 delegates that voted, over 150 were illegitimate (Kangaroos/Torontos) most of whom were not students. “That was not an election” the director said, “they just selected whom they wanted and announced it after the hoax,” I wouldn’t agree less.

The 27^th NANS president elect, Tijjani Usman, is an indigene of Kogi state, having finished his degree studies years back, his eligibility of contest was on a platform of diploma from the University of Ahmadu Bello Zaria. The comrade is known to have served as a deputy coordinator in 2007 and was made acting coordinator later that year after his coordinator Daniel Onje had emerged as the then president. He was a onetime faction senate president under the comrade Yinka Dada (Saddam)’s faction, quiet bewildering as his present predecessor was the Sectary General under the same faction. A perfect scenario to demonstrate nepotism I must say.

Comrade Yinka Gbadebo Ayefele (outgoing president) on the other hand was an expelled student of Ekiti state University, yours sincerely, one couldn’t do but try to fathom, where on earth would a student be expelled for miss conduct and later be made students’ leader of the country if not in Nigeria? The comrade is currently known to be a diploma student of Obafemi Awolawo University. To the best of my knowledge the comrade is running that program just to qualify being in his seat.

Now, I am also itched with the question ‘why the zone ‘A’ convention took place in Delta state (South-South, an axis of zone ‘B’)? And as I strove to find out, I got to learn that the Special Adviser to the President on youth and students’ matters comrade Jude Imagwe is indeed a former NANS faction president in 2010. Comrade Jude Imagwe is also known to be a ‘cabal’ stakeholder in NANS which enabled him to be amongst the monitors of the electioneering processes where he ensured that the next man who’d emerge as president must be someone whom would support and secure the interest of his “Oga at the top”. Jude ensured the incumbency of Tijjani Usman when he chose that the election must be held in Delta state for were held in Zone ‘A’, more legitimate delegates would have surfaced at the convention, and his candidate wouldn’t have made the victory.

Plunder;

However, gravely unfortunate it is for the country whose educational sector was shut down for period of almost ten months just last year. Students of this country perhaps, may have no hope whatsoever attaining a globally accepted educational standard. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) last year, embarked on an indefinite strike for the claims that universities are under funded by the government and as a result, Nigerian graduates are “Half Baked” the union says (I wonder whose fault that is). The demands of the union reflected the agreement which was put to accord by the Federal Government and the ASUU in 2009. Six long months the university students waited, till the ASUU’s demands were reached and yet the students still undergoes the subliminal inadequacies of learning processes they have always been through. One must ask, why the long strikes by the ASUU when they can’t put the money they collected to good use?

The NANS however did their best in despising the situation. The then president Yinka Gbadegbo Ayefele held a series of demonstrations in Abuja. That’s as much as is expected of an organization that has neither a secretariat nor an office from where a petition may be issued against either of the bodies responsible for the students’ time wastage.

Nevertheless, it’s a good thing that the NANS were also qualified to represent the students’ interest in the last National Conference. I recall the disappointment I encountered when I read the names of the NANS delegation representatives, ‘Yinka Gbadegbo, Yinka Dada, Abdullahi Aliyu, Chinonso Obasi, Sylvester Okoh and Clifford Abur.’ All of which only the president was a student (at least for the time being). Followed the conference’s proceedings and to my expectations, the only contributions the students’ representation could make during the conference was collect the handsome allowances given to them. I mean what significance could a bunch of counterfeits bearing a well-respected pseudonym offer more?

It’s the Fifth month since the abduction of over 200 girl students from Borno, Chibok. I remember watching on the news the European Students’ Union (ESU) joining the protests/campaigns to #BringBackOurGirls, (as I noticed, none amongst those in the picture appeared to be above the age of 25). How sad for the Chibok girls to come back home one of these days to learn that their country’s students organization which confines of people some as old as their fathers and school teachers, yet not “giving a damn” about them.

“Nigerian students have lost their integrity.” Ismail Taiwo (a NANS comrade from Oyo state) wrote on his facebook status at the scene of the 2014 national convention. I couldn’t do but agree more with him. Little I can add is but a personal experience. Early March this year, I was in Niger state to witness the zonal convention of zone ‘A’, a rather repulsive scenario I perceived as innocent youth were maltreated and exploited of their wills. I saw students sleeping on plane tar, others drinking water with dry loaves of bread and others waiting (in the cold) for orders from their “leaders” as to whom to support or not to support all in the name of “STRUGGLE”. The convention which took place in Federal University of Technology Minna, was supposed to start in the early hours of the day, quite frankly we were there since morning and to our greatest disappointment the convention did not start until around 2am the next morning, all as a result of long negotiations between the “stake holders” as for “whom fits where” and “which state gets what office”. As one may wonder, where in the world is an election conducted at the hours of 2am? I’ll take the pleasure of telling you, “in NANS.”

NANS is popularly recognized to be an active award giver. They proudly refer to that as “Scope”. Regrettably, a once known respected students’ platform that does but fights for students’ rights and interests is today recognized only as an enterprise that goes round the Nation’s big offices to scuttle for money. “Scope”!

Rot;

During the Zone ‘A’ convention, I and other comrades were standing outside in the cold weather discussing NANS and Nigeria in whole. A fellow comrade from Sokoto state, comrade Brema who was utterly furious with the happenings, said, “NANS is the most corrupt organization in this country”, he added “it is only in NANS that you’d see a 40 year old posing as student to contest for an office.” He concluded that “the day that will change is the day real students will come out to decide for themselves, and if any of those old comrades dared to open their mouths the students should get their canes and give them a hell of a whooping.” I agree with the man.

The Al-Jazeera stream, last week was held in regards to Nigeria’s thirty percent youth political participation campaign “#30%OrNothing”. I watched with remorse for my country as both the correspondents and guests talked enthusiastically about the campaign, for unbeknownst to them 40 year olds are still playing students politics, so which youth are they looking for? Only God can tell.

My question remains, would a 40 year old consider himself a student in a healthy country? As you ruminate to answer that, I must conclude that Nigeria’s sickness does not end at people like Goodluck Jonathan becoming leaders in this country, this clearly says that Nigeria’s hopelessness lies far beyond the realms of the future politics, as the illness curls tenaciously in the hearts of the so-called “leaders of tomorrow”, and the government continues to recognize these National Association of NON Students.