NANS Failed Students —DSRIC

The Defence for Students Rights Initiative Concern (DSRIC), a students’ group has berated the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) for allegedly supporting the government’s removal of fuel subsidy and the deregulation of the downstream sector.

The group also called on the Senate and other Joint-Campus Committees of the association to warn the executive members, especially the NANS President on his activities and what they termed selfish interest, and his hobnobbing with the government on the pretext of fighting for the interest of Nigerian students or face impeachment.

The group stated this shortly after a rally at Orin Ekiti in Ekiti State to sensitize students and the youth on the need to reject government action on the subsidy removal. They said the action is to further impoverish their poor parents who are the lower class in the country.

Addressing students and youths at the gathering, the President of DSRIC, Comrade Samson Adekunle Adebayo said the decision of the Federal government without thorough dialogue and deep consultation proves that Nigerian political leaders are selfish and mindless.

“It doesn’t appear there is much the government is doing to protect the poor masses, despite the much-touted calls to empower the youth and rehabilitate the moribund refineries to provide employment opportunities.”

“There is no security in our country, no roads and water. Our parents are suffering. They will need to sell their farm produce before they can get money to pay our school fees. Boko Haram is killing and maiming our brothers and sisters in the Northern part of the country who are there to earn a living. Why is the President not doing something about that? The government is trying to make things hard for us. Policemen are killing innocent souls, especially here in Ekiti,” he hinted.

Adebayo urged Nigerian students to come together and speak in a voice that will move the students’ liberation forward instead antagonizing one another.

In a chat with Campus Square, General Secretary of the Group, Comrade Opeyemi Akomolafe, challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to release the outcome of the panel set up by the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua if indeed there is fuel subsidy.

“Why didn’t he tell us during his campaign that he is going to remove fuel subsidy? Who are the members of the so-called cabal that has been enjoying this subsidy? Is he not aware of this subsidy before these critical times?”

He enjoined all Nigerian youths, both home and abroad, to put pressure on the federal government to expose and publish in national dailies, the names of those who have been enjoying the subsidy.

Some of the students at the rally who spoke with Campus Square described the action of the federal government on the removal of the fuel subsidy as a way of killing the poor to better the life of the rich.

They said the government should concentrate on better policies that can bring good economic order, employment opportunities and many more to the people especially at the grassroots level.

—Bayo Adetu