South-West members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have described the meeting held by the association’s national executives with President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday 3rd January 2019 as a calculated move to support the Federal Government in oppressing Nigerian students generally.
This was contained in a statement issued by the NANS South/West D zone of the body and signed by Popoola Da Silva, the President Student’s Union, Federal University Of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State which was made available to newsmen and was copied to other coordinators of NANS in all other five geo-political zones.
“The NANS factions that went to meet the President and presented him belated birthday cards had ulterior motives different from what Nigerian students in the SouthWest zone D, especially Ogun state stand for. We are not in support of their treacherous meeting with the President as the motive was clearly not in and for the interest of the whole student populace,” the statement read.
The leadership of the South/West NANS, however, used the medium to call on NANS’ apex body to retrace its steps and make necessary amends before it loses the trust of the whole student populace.
“It is very disheartening that Nigerian Students have been sold out on the platter of some lucre. It is actually inevitable since we have people who are as old as our fathers and mothers being NANS executives, people who have given birth to 2-3 children but see NANS as a source of income, the leadership of NANS are career people and not students. Such should not negotiate on behalf of Nigerian students.
“The standard of education is falling day by day as we cannot compete favorably with our counterparts from other parts of the world. Why? This is because we are theoretical learners. We take everything given to us hook line and sinker without any physical proof. It is essential to know that prerequisites and necessities are missing in our tertiary institutions.
“We have cases of students traveling as far as Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya just to run analysis! We have so many non-functioning laboratories since they are under-equipped or not even equipped at all.
“We have cases of students collapsing and suffocating to death in lecture hall because of over population. What should we say to a case whereby 2,500 students receive lectures in a thousand-capacity lecture hall? It sounds impossible but this is the reality in our tertiary institutions. We the students are suffering, and not only our lecturers”, the statement added.
Packaged by Olanrewaju Agiri
