Student’ position on the 2019 general elections: Patriotism or fraud?

The 2019 general elections are enmeshed in controversies just as had been the unfolding events at the APC secretariat in the ruling party’s early days. The first controversy was the election of Senate president and the last was the postponement of election in the wee hours of the Election Day. In the midst of these controversies Nigerian students are playing a significant role, Uji Abdullahi Iliyasu examines whether the role is patriotism or fraud.

Background

Students, all over the world, constitute the major percentage of youth population. This group is the most active of all groups in a society. This is the reason youth restiveness should be quickly nipped in the bud when it erupts. Or it is even wiser to take proactive steps in curbing youthful exuberance

Nigerian students, like their counterparts elsewhere, take the central role in protests against public policies that directly or indirectly affect them.

If these protests are well focused and aimed at attaining national aspirations it is good. But if students become partisan and affiliate with a political party, whether the ruling or the opposition, then dangers locks in the polity.

It is expected that the same students who protested “Ali Must Go” in 1978 because of an insignificant reduction in their welfare and protested against former President Goodluck Jonathan over fuel subsidy in 2013, should be worry any presidential candidate whose agenda include the sale of national assets.

Unfortunately Nigerian students seem to have lost focus in their struggle for protesting against a sitting government because it is bent on punishing a judge who appropriates the nation’s commonwealth for personal use.

NANS protests Onnoghen’s suspension

On January 29, 2019, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in Abeokuta, Ogun state, protested against the suspension of Justice Walter Onnoghen as Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and  urged President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse his action.  The union also described the suspension as illegal and unconstitutional.

NANS Spokesman Adeyemi Azeez, accused Buhari’s administration of embarking “on judicial coup through the suspension of Onnoghen without following the constitution procedure.”

This shows the level of digression from focus Nigerians students seem to have attained. Why would not the students leave constitutional matter to the judiciary? The case of Onnoghen was a mere allegation. He may later regain his position after the trial.

However, NAN’s threat to boycott the general elections is within the academic purview of student struggle because it is clear that if the ASUU strike was not called off before the general elections, it would disenfranchise the students, whom the union leaders said constitute 23m of the electorate.

Threat to boycott general elections

On February 5, NANS announced plans to boycott the 2019 general elections over the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The student union disclosed this in a press release entitled, ‘Operation no resumption, no election’ which was signed by its president, Comrade Danielson Akpan. 

According to the statement, the students said the prolonged ASUU strike was a “deliberate ploy to disenfranchise our members, especially those who are registered within their school environments”.

The student union took the decision out of the frustration they were experiencing following the prolonged disagreement between the federal government on one hand and ASUU and ASUP on the other hand.

The students said that the student constituency has the highest percentage of voters in the country.

The union leader was angry over the hide-and-seek game the federal government was playing with ASUU over negotiations that would bring to an end the prolonged strike. The strike had crippled academic activities since November 4, 2018, when it was called after ASUU’s National Executive Meeting (NEC) meeting at Federal University of Technology, Akure, ondo state.

The students therefore, urged Nigerian students to reject any election conducted in the country if ASUU strike was not suspended.

The statement reads, “The leadership of NANS, after a careful observation of the continued insensitive shutdown of our universities due to the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), wish to unapologetically declare ‘Operation No Resumption, No Election’

“It appears that the gains recorded in the last few weeks have been eroded by the consistent shutdown of our schools, and barely 12 days to the commencement of the general elections, schools remained shut.  It is instructive to note that the student constituency constitutes the largest votes segment of registered voters with 22.3m as released by INEC.

“These continuous strike actions by both ASUU and ASUP has not only brought increased pain on students and parents, it is now seen by us as a deliberate ploy to disenfranchise our members, especially those who were registered within their school environments.”

NANS’ warning to politicians

NANS on February 17, warned politicians to desist from politics of bloodshed to enhance growth and inclusiveness of the democratic process in the polity.

This timely warning of the students to politicians is energy directed towards a worthy goal.

The national Public Relations Officer of NANS, Comrade Bestman Okereafor, made the appeal in a statement in Enugu.

The appeal came in the wake of violence that had erupted in some parts of Nigeria. Two persons were allegedly killed as 13 vehicles were damaged in pre-election violence that erupted in Obot-Akara local government area of Akwa Ibom state on election eve.

Similarly, in Kaduna state, government had in a statement on the eve of the presidential and parliamentary elections, confirmed that 66 persons were killed by unidentified gunmen in Kajuru local government area of the state, the figure the governor said, had risen to 130.

INEC chair asked to resign

On February 16, 2019, NANS, after the postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections, condemned the action by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Addressing a news conference in Abeokuta on the following day, spokesman of the association, Mr Azeez Adeyemi, said that the students would organise nationwide protest against the development on Monday. But the protest did not see the light of day even though the students stated that the association was fully mobilised for the protest and that no attempt to stop it would succeed.

Adeyemi described the situation as “show of shame and disgrace of a country”, adding that countries often learnt from their past, “but that it is not so with Nigeria”.

He warned that the sovereignty of Nigeria should not be toyed with by selfish leaders, and that the unity of the country should not be undermined.

 “The sovereignty of Nigeria should not be toyed with by any leader. Our forefathers fought for this; the unity of the nation should not be frustrated.

“Our position is that INEC chairman should resign, and President Muhammadu Buhari should strengthen Nigerian security apparatus.”

 “For over three months now, even till yesterday (Friday), INEC has been assuring Nigerians that the commission was fully ready, why now calling off the election on the day of the election.

“NANS still holds the view and sure of the fact that this postponement is not the complete decision of the INEC chairman, but, by some cabals at the presidency.”

A stooge in politicians’ hands?

On February 20, 2019 NANS urged the personnel of security agencies involved in the 2019 general elections to ignore President Muhammadu Buhari’s order to deal decisively with ballot box snatchers.

A statement signed by NANS’ Public Relations Officer Bestman Okereafor reads, “The Electoral Act 2010, as amended, prohibits anyone from snatching electoral materials and committing other related offences during elections.”

 Well meaning Nigerians see the president’s directive for security personnel to deal with ballot snatchers as a statement coming from the president who is bent on ensuring transparency in the democratic process. The NANSs’ statement has clearly vindicated stakeholders in education who argue that the once radical NANS has become a stooge in the hands of politicians.

When NANS was founded in 1980, it was a powerful student movement in the country. It was formed to replace the proscribed National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS). The new student association was to serve the interests of Nigerian students at home and in the Diaspora.

NUNS was procribed in 1978 after 22 years of existence by General Olusegun Obasanjo administration because of its stance against tuition fees’ increment on campuses.

 Up to the late 1990s, NANS was committed to the protection of interests of students, therefore, stood and fought for justice, good governance and the rule of law in the country.

But today, many stakeholders say NANS has derailed in its core mandate, and has become,  to watchers of Nigerian politics, a stooge in the hands of politicians.

Succeeding leaders of the association only led protests against government actions, but ended up as political special advisers. They annonced ultimatums at every opportunity but they did to effect them.

One of the leaders of NANS in the 1980s, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, said he was sad by the present status of the association.

“During our days, we had a clear focus and pursued genuinely the interest of all Nigerian students and also that of the citizenry as a whole. But the leadership in recent years has actually bastardised the once vibrant student body.

 “During my tenure, for example, NANS never gave anybody an award of recognition. We didn’t believe in that kind of thing. We associated with some human rights activists.  I remember that the association recognised and named the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi the ‘Senior Advocate of the Masses’. It was apt then.  Chief Fawehinmi always answered the distress calls of students anywhere.”

Today NANS gives awards to governors, senators and other politicians at a price, more so that their annual elections create divisions in the once cohesive association that had produced a number of nationalists in the country.

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