UPWARD & MOBILE; RADIO YOUTH PROGRAMME We treated this topic under EDUCATION. The Student Union Body of Nigeria in the past used to play very influential roles. According to reliable sources, when the body sneezed, the government experienced gush pimples all over its body, in the past. But like the Legendry Chinua Achebe has noted in his famous book, THINGS FALL APART, with the centre no longer able to hold. The corruption institutionalised in Nigeria by the long years of foray into governance by some ambitious elements in the military destroyed most good things on its path, while they held sway. For those things the military could not use force to get, it adopted corruption methods to acquire. Consequentially, not one institution in Nigeria has been left built on integrity or equity ever since. The fortunes of Nigeria Student Union body received its knock-out blows from the above phenomenon and it up till today has never recovered from the coma. Nowadays, the Elections which produces its officials is heavily manipulated by those in leadership, leaving the students wondering if democracy and free elections have anything in common while they learn and imbibe the crimes. On this short article, I have managed to carve a short historical narration of what the story used to look like. I do not intend to paint a bleak picture about the body now, but the public perceive the heavily polarised body as corrupt, violent and disrespectful bunch of handpicked hooligans, who are arranged by the powers that be to foster the ruins they the leadership have enthroned in the society. My hope, however deem is that a generation will arise to change statuesque. HERE IS THE HISTORICAL FACT ON NIGERIA’S EDUCATION SECTOR. AND THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE STUDENT UNION BODY BEFORE NOW. DO YOU KNOW? Ø Time was when the Nigerian Students proudly held successive governments accountable through incisive pieces in newspapers; open debate and when necessary street protests, that were carried out in very civilised manner. I remember with nostalgia the efforts of the indefatigable Segun Okeowo who in 1978 led the then National Union of Nigerian Students in a struggle against the educational policies of the Military Regime. The students fought on all fronts and brought education to the front burner of national discourse. Ø However what struck most Nigerians was their deployment of carefully marshalled points to fault the educational policies of the government. The Nigerian Students in 1989 also picked up the gauntlet against the Ibrahim Babangida regime over the crippling effects of the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP. Indeed the Nigerian Students virtually rose the populace to action when they trooped out in Lagos, Kaduna, Ibadan, Kano, Enugu and other major cities to protest against SAP. Nigeria was grounded for days. And the Federal Government after taking punitive measures against the students, with the closure of the Universities in Lagos, Ibadan, Benin, Enugu and Kaduna, reversed some of the provisions of SAP and also provided some palliative measures for the people. I use this medium to implore the sleeping Nigerian youths to equip themselves with history in order to decide the future they will prefer.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 17:59:36 +0000
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