Modiu Olaguro, a prominent team member of Empowered Network blasts NANS for Misrepresentation
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| MODIU OLAGURO |
"The blind leading the blind is not so upsetting, more jarring is the blind leading the sighted."
The academic staff union of universities (ASUU) have been on strike
for the past ninety days; according to the ASUU chairman- Dr. Issa
Fagge, the strike action became imperative because the federal
government had failed to honour the agreement it made with the union in
2009.
As it has always been whenever ASUU strikes, the university students
are always at the receiving end of it as we are left with no other
option than to sit idle at our homes recounting our losses especially
the inevitable extension of our academic years in school.
Though no student in his or her right senses would want to extend his
or her stay in school by even a day, the situation of things that
prompted the strike embarked upon by ASUU ought to make us have a
rethink and to ponder for a moment on whether we- as students would
rather agree to support ASUU in this cause on their position that
education has to be adequately funded or succumb to the extra year
pressure in clamoring for an end to the strike.
Among the stakeholders that have been vocal on the current imbroglio
is the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) headed by the
National president- Yinka Gbadebo.
Gbadebo while speaking in Lagos recently, said that NANS was no
longer in support of the strike as it has no moral obligation to do so
urging ASUU to drag the federal government to court.
The National Association of Nigerian students is the umbrella body of
students studying in all tertiary institutions in the country. Thus by
implication, every student studying in a university, polytechnic or
college becomes an automatic member of the body.
Before embarking on this journey, it would only be fair to give a
concise definition of an association in order to ascertain whether NANS
fits in.
The Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary (International student’s
edition) defines an association as “an official group of people who have
joined together for a particular purpose; a connection or relationship
between people or organization”; Encarta dictionary defines it as
“coming together and social interaction between people”.
As it is expected of an organization, we believe that any statement
from the leadership of NANS ought to be the position of the generality
of Nigerian students across universities; polytechnics and colleges
respectively but a closer look at the antecedents, actions and
statements from the leadership of NANS should make every Nigerian
student wary of this body.
A colleague confided in me that quite a handful number among the
leadership of NANS are either drop outs or graduates; he further
revealed that the smart ones amongst them enroll for a part time,
diploma or graduate course in an institution before obtaining a form of
contest in order to be recognized as a student.
Clearly, ASUU and NANS are independent bodies; as Gbadebo pointed
out, NANS has no moral obligation whatsoever to partake in its fights
and struggles but as logical as the statement may sound, the leadership
of NANS fell into a deep fallacy by asking ASUU to accept the paltry sum
of 130 billion to be shared by over 60 universities.
As I wrote earlier in a piece titled “On ASUU strike: unlike a
nation’s pride”, the 2009 agreement consists of quite a number of things
but there are few ones that ought not to be the fight of ASUU but that
of NANS, especially the funding of education. Not a single one among
undergraduates will support ASUU if it had embarked on this strike
because of the increase in the retirement age of professors or the
handing over of landed properties to federal universities.
No Nigerian student whom NANS claim to represent and speak on its
behalf would line up and sing songs of praise in support of ASUU if its
reason for leaving the classroom was for an increment in pay and not the
call for a better education for the Nigerian people.
If NANS had been an association that truly seeks to protect the
welfare of the over 60 million Nigerian students, it would have occurred
to its leadership that the clamour by ASUU on the funding of education
ought not to be ASUU's fight but theirs; or who stands to benefit from a
world class classroom, a standard laboratory, a 24 hour electricity
supply to the hostels, a reduced teacher - student ratio? The lecturers
or the students?
How would NANS claim to represent 60 million Nigerian students when
it neither owns a website nor a blog? What authority do NANS and its
card carrying executives have when they have not a single presence on
the social media? I searched for 'www.nans.edu.ng, www.nans.org, www.nans.com and several other combinations but all i got was “website not available”.
A Facebook search of NANS only shows a page with a total like of
“4654” as at 14th of September 2013; a scroll to the bottom of the page
had a poorly constructed statement that goes thus:
“I am comrade Adeoye Adelaja, former Ass sec Gen in Federal poly Bida
2004/2005 set, i searched on facebook and i did Ŋ¤τ̲̅ see NANS, i
decided τ̲̅ȍ create the page!!! in solidarity and for the sake of
passing information τ̲̅ȍ all concern across all students bodies, i
donate this page τ̲̅ȍ NANS, all the current Excos who which τ̲̅ȍ Manage
this Page should do ♍ƺ an Email dibigslim@yahoo.com for ♍ƺ τ̲̅ȍ admin dem”.
How on earth is NANS representing students in Nigeria if it cannot
boast of a Twitter account in the 21st century? How can Gbadebo and his
colleagues be speaking on my behalf and on the behalf of all
undergraduates if it does not have a single notice board in the
University of Lagos, the University of Ibadan, the University of
Calabar, Ahmadu Bello university- Zaria, Federal university of
technology- Akure, Yaba college of technology, Adeniran Ogunsanya
college of education, and all the other tertiary institutions across
Nigeria?
The benefits of the social media as a powerful tool was most evident
during the January 2012 subsidy protests where the Nigerian people were
mobilised via the online media; NANS absence on the online media would
not have bothered me if other associations such as the market women,
national union of road transport workers, national union of local
government employees, carpentry associations etcetera were not online.
Is it not a farce that a few individuals have been parading
themselves as the saviours of Nigerian students when they see nothing
wrong in the standard of education in Nigeria? If Gbadebo was a Nigerian
student, will he claim not to be aware that a four man room in an
average Nigerian university now occupies at least twenty students?
How can NANS be a body that is concerned about the welfare of the
Nigerian students when our laboratory taps are dried or is the ailing
standard of education not part of its mandate?
What justification does NANS have to clandestinely take sides with
the federal government (please convince us otherwise) when it is glaring
that this country has the resources to fund education even beyond the
26% recommended by UNESCO; this is a country that feeds a president with
1 billion naira per annum and changes the spoons and forks in the first
lady's kitchen with 45million naira for the same period.
How does NANS claim to speak for Nigerian students when it has always
taken sides with the government in power? Speaking at the 11th annual
campus life workshop, the Lagos lawyer- Mr Femi Falana stated his
displeasure over the lack of sincerity on the part of NANS as the
association could not present itself as a witness in the court to fight
the fee hike in the Lagos state university; yet, they claim to protect
the interest of the Nigerian student.
How does NANS expect Nigerian students to buy the idea that the
country's economy will collapse if education gets adequate funding when
there is profligacy everywhere? The politicians ride in exotic cars of
the latest model whereas our professors drive about in a jeep of less
than N800, 000 that was manufactured probably in the 70’s; former
president Olusegun Obasanjo owns a university, Atiku Abubakar owns one,
David mark earns over N600 million a year, Dimeji Bankole stole his own,
Patricia Etteh stole, James Ibori laundered, Tafa Balogun stole, Bode
George carted, Sanni Abacha's loot is still hanging, General Theophilius
Danjuma sold an oil block and after paying all obligations, he asked
Nigerians to advise him on what to do with it because the proceeds were
too much; is NANS still buying the lies of Labaran Maku and Dr. Okonjo
Iweala that the economy will collapse; that there is no money in Nigeria
to educate its masses?
The 20th century physicist- Albert Einstein wrote that “Education is
not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think”- so as
an individual that have received little education, I’ve been engaging
myself in some serious thoughts on whether it was possible for the
federal government to declare bankruptcy if it decides to cough out a
paltry N1.2 trillion spread over three years on the education sector
when each senator and member of the house of representatives earn at
least $1.7m and $1.2m respectively amounting to over N3 trillion per
annum in a country where 10 million children are out of school.
What calibre of student occupies the executive position of the
association? Which school do they attend? What level are they? What’s
their course of study? What are the criteria for becoming a member or an
executive of NANS? What are the short and long term objectives of NANS?
Who were the Nigerian students that agreed that the governor of Ondo
state- Olusegun Mimiko was the best governor of the Nigerian students?
What were the criteria involved? How was the conclusion reached? Was it
through a vote? If yes, who voted? Where did the voting take place? Was
it online or offline?
How does NANS organize students for mobilization and protests if it
neither has a website nor a Facebook account or does it go about it via
phone calls or text messages to all 60 million Nigerian students? As a
student body, who acts as NANS staff adviser(s)? Politicians or
Lecturers? How does NANS get its funding? How are the funds utilized?
Who does NANS report to? Has there been any case of financial
misappropriation among its members? If yes, who? When? And what actions
were taken against the person(s) involved? These are begging questions
that needs sincere answers from the leadership of the association.
If the questions above have answers, where are they and why are they
so elusive not to be within the reach of the Nigerian students?
If Nigerian students pressure ASUU to call off the strike, I would
not want us to forget that since the establishment of ASUU in 1978, it
had embarked on strikes in 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2007, 2008, 2009,
2013 over similar issues as the present one which makes it evident that
if this problem is not solved once and for all knowing fully well that
the country has the resources to heed to its demand, our children will
probably be in our present predicament in a matter of years.
This is a clarion call to fellow students in all tertiary
institutions across the country to demand for a body that will serve to
protect our interests, speak on our behalf and sincerely represent us in
order to help build an education for all society.
Until then, our heads are soaked, please NANS, stop the urine.
Modiu Olaguro finds 'X' at The University of Lagos.
Email:dprophetpride@gmail.com
Email:dprophetpride@gmail.com
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