The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called on the Federal Government to urgently look into the sufferings and agony in the land especially as it concerns Nigerian Students,saying that “since the inception of the present administration headed by President Muhammadu Buhari, if we would be sincere to ourselves, retrogression has been the other of the day.”
President Muhammadu Buhari
In a statement on Thursday, entitled: “The Agony of Nigerian Students and the Mantra of Change,” NANS President, Comrade Chinonso Obasi, said that students and parents are struggling to pay their children school fees, some have even deferred semesters or withdrawn from the school because things are not auguring well.
“Any student in school today that has two square meal will be thanking his stars, three square meal is now a story of the past. To be candid to ourselves, the agony of Nigerian students is getting unbearable,” Obasi said.
The statement read: “The pathetic situation of this country has called for a curious but serious concern, why are Nigerian students always at the losing end? This is a question that is eagerly begging for answer from the Nigerian government.
“Since the inception of this present administration headed by President Muhammadu Buhari, if we would be sincere to ourselves, retrogression has been the other of the day. The suffering and agony in the land call for the concern of every Nigerian students because this was not the change we voted for. Change we demanded, not chain.
“In today’s Nigeria, students and parents are struggling to pay their school fees, some have even deferred semesters or withdrawn from the school because things are not auguring well.
“Any student in school today that has two square meal will be thanking his stars, three square meal is now a story of the past. To be candid to ourselves, the agony of Nigerian Students is getting unbearable.
“Lack of better alternative to get oneself financed in school has led many of Nigerian students to engage themselves in all form of atrocities and inimical social vices. In our various campuses, people hide under the slogan of “man must survive” to perpetuate their evil. Robbery and prostitution are now the reigning vogues in our institutions because truly, man needs to survive. Imagine, frustration even made secondary school students burnt down their school building in Oyo State.
“And some of us are product of history, we can remember vividly how the people at the helms of government today were been taken care of in their days in school. They were been fed and their clothes were ironed by third party. They paid no dime and rode on different scholarships, it was little increment in school fees that led to Ali Must Go in late 1970s that almost turned the country upside down. The generation of today’s leaders were not molested, they disavowed cheating but delighted in molesting the able youths and students of today. It is a thing we must give considerable consideration.”
Obasi continued, “We cannot continue to pretend that all is well. All concerned agencies of government should garner and gather themselves to ease the agony of Nigerian Students. We urge the president and his cabinets to make policies that are favorable to Nigerian masses.
“We demand for special social academic intervention for Nigerian students in our institutions to calm down the heightened tension, so that action will not lead to reaction that would be to grave to dismantle. Change we demanded, not chain.”
