Where in the name of goodness are the Nigerian students? One cannot but wonder aloud how easily the leadership of the Nigerian students got itself so much into bribery and settlement that we rarely feel any effect of the existence of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS at a time when its presence needs to be felt! Could NANS be suffering from pericarditis too? I wonder!
To hear that progressive students and the NANS were bribed by PDP to embark on a pro-government demonstration in Abuja is a very sad story indeed. I couldn’t but voice my heartfelt regret that the NANS has slipped into oblivion at a time like this when its presence is highly needed for reconstruction work on the Nigeria project.
The NANS, your awful failure is written all over Nigeria. You have successfully dashed the hope and trust that used to be placed in you by the people. Everywhere you look, there are indicators of decay and deterioration all over the land: The banks are busy sacking staff by the day, oil and gas firms are reducing staff strength and the students whose collective interests you claim to represent are being subjected on their campuses to reading ‘obsolete books’ and experimenting in empty science laboratories. Did it escape you observation that the same libraries that contain obsolete books, the same empty science laboratories used to cater so well to the predecessors of the people you claim to represent today in years far gone?
The condition of things is so bad that Nigerian students no longer know where they are headed to search for gainful employment after graduation. Some might make bold to argue that it’s not their calling to confront the rot in the land. But I still ask those of them that make such a claim:
Where on earth will you run to for employment after graduation if you must sit around and let your leaders collude with the evil men and women that rob Nigeria dry? Perhaps you’re planning to escape to the USA, UK, EU, or even Asia? Where on earth do you think they need Nigerians at this moment? I have bad news for you: Nigerians are snapped and bungled already, they constitute a toxic brand that no one wants! The future is bleak, very bleak comrades.
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I was once a student leader and activist. I even played a role in the pressure that ousted Ibrahim Babangida, the self-proclaimed evil genius from power after he annulled Chief MKO Abiola’s victory and wanted to stay put. I say to you NANS, get up and call out your rank and file in their millions to protest and resist the unconstitutional acts going on in Aso Rock, Abuja. Come out and defend your future. Come out and say no to corruption and perversion of justice in Nigeria’s seat of power. The man that calls himself president has been unaccounted for since more than two months now. Yet, there’s troubling silence all over the land when NANS is mentioned. If older fellows could embark on a march in Abuja, you, who represents the youth and those you represent on the campuses have no excuse at all, comrades.
Every student body in the land should rise up and protest. The march that you must stage is not going to be a political per se. It will be a rally to protect your future from destruction. That future, I must remind you, is in serious jeopardy.
Aluta continua Victoria acerta!
● Comrade Kenny Toye is a former student leader/activist. He writes from Effunrun, Delta State.
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