National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS used to be an activist organisation, but five years ago, it has become an annexure of the Government House and the Aso Rock, dishing out awards in a beggarly manner. Nwoba Chika Nwoba writes.
There's nothing like leaders of tomorrow. It's a cliche used to hoodwink voters and harvest their votes. If tomorrow's leadership is dependent upon age, then, tomorrow is bleak in Nigeria! National Association of Nigerian Students held its 2022 NANS presidential election in Abuja. Election into one position lasted for 6 days. At the end of it, two presidents emerged. The screening committee who are also students allegedly collected millions from a politician in Ebonyi to deliver a mandate of disqualifying a particular aspirant for the minor position of Deputy Senate President from Ebonyi State. The fight lasted for 4 days. It took superior lobbying effort to get the young man cleared to contest.
The thing gets worse in prospective years. A good number of these NANS champions get admitted into Postgraduate programmes and intentionally delay the duration for as long as they want so that they can continue to qualify as students to run for future elections in the NANS. The NANS election ground is an extended coup action. Whoever outshoots the other gets a self-announced winner. And no one wins NANS presidential election without the influence of the Presidency or leadership of the National Assembly or a Governor spending much money on such a person. Who are the voters at the election? SUG presidents! These are future delegates at party primaries.
So, when the young people bash the older ones, let's not forget that most of the older people in the conventional political arena were at some points SUG officers at their different institutions of higher learning. It's just a cycle evolving. Many people steal, but whoever the law catches is the thief. Ask the whereabouts of some bursary funds handled by student leaders. How do they handle the funds generated from fees payable by students on admission which go to the NANS or SUG directorate? How do they manage the funds generated from the transport and sports sub-directorates of the SUG? Some SUG Presidents are richer than a House of Assembly member in an oil-rich state. Every NANS president is richer than most local government Chairmen in Nigeria. These are the people who'll hold the megaphone and be yabbying the older folks forgetting that they were their colleagues in school.
NANS used to be an activist organisation, but since five years ago, it has become an annexure of the Government House and the Aso Rock, dishing out awards in a beggarly manner. Some governors if not all, pocket SUG presidents and later appoint one of them SA on Students Affairs who later sit on the packages released to students. There's nothing like leaders of tomorrow. Tomorrow chooses for itself leaders and it chooses the older ones over the youths.
Nwoba Chika Nwoba is the Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and a Public Affairs Analyst.
