5th February, 2015
Damilare Okunola
The National Union of Lagos State Students, NULASS, said that it has endorsed Akinwunmi Ambode, gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC ahead of the 28 February governorship election in Nigeria.
This was disclosed to P.M.NEWS Campus Square during a press conference held by the union on Tuesday, 3 February at the Federal College of Education, Technical, Akoka.
Abdullahi Kayode Muhammad, spokesperson of the union said: “we deemed it pertinent to appreciate and acknowledge the efforts of His Excellency Babatunde Raji Fashola in the area of procurement of bursary for Lagos State students, Law students in Lagos State now get N50,000 as bursary which we did not have in the past, Law students in Law School now get N200,000 as bursary as well as students in medical schools.
“All these things are different from what they do in other states and it clearly shows that Lagos is working.
“We have also seen that in the indigenous university that we have in Lagos State, Governor Fashola has done a lot in the area of providing infrastructure and in the area of providing amenities, we have seen the new Faculty of Science Complex in LASU, which is the best in sub-Saharan Africa.
“It is imperative to point out that in the entire Nigeria, it is only in LASU that transportation is being studied with a befitting School of Transport.
“We felt that these good works in Lagos must continue, that is why we are not working for experimentation, we want continuity. Hence, after a thought provoking session on Fashola’s achievements in Lagos, we decided to endorse Mr.Akinwunmi Ambode for continuity in Lagos.”
The union, however, presented its demands to their preferred candidate should he emerge as the winner of the 28 February election in the state.
“Mr. Ambode should therefore ensure an increase in budgetary allocation to 26% as recommended by UNESCO. He should also try to bring about democratisation and due process on our campuses. He should ensure that there is no witch haunting, victimisation, and cancellation of programmes that can help our members in our respective campuses.
“Considering the fact that Lagos is a cosmopolitan state which is the most populous in the entire sub-Saharan Africa, it is given importance over and above other states/cities in the world due to the level of development under Governor Fashola.
“It is then crystal clear that the leader of Lagos must be a person that has been in the system of Lagos, who knows the nooks and crannies of the state’s economic viability and also project a meaningful economic policy for Lagos so as to ensure more changes in the state,” Muhammad noted.