WorldStage Newsonline-- The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has faulted the participation of students under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the ongoing national conference just as it described the talk shop a charade. The organization n a statement at the weekend, said the confab was organized by an unpopular government that is looking for any straw to hang unto. The statement signed by its National Se rotary, Michael Ogundele, said ERC was not expecting any positive outcome from the conference which just kicked off in Abuja because it is not a sovereign conference. It warned the student populace against believing that the six student delegates from NANS were representing their interest, pointing out that the students association has consistently failed students in recent years, adding that the delegates were not elected by the students they claim to represent. It read in part: The National Conference is an expensive sideshow that is not designed to address the countrys challenges like mass unemployment, rotten public education sector, and degenerate public health services etc. We condemn the participation of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) at the National Conference which has been convened by a deeply unpopular government looking for any straw to hang onto. We do not expect any positive outcome from the conference as it is not a sovereign conference of the elected representatives of working and oppressed masses of Nigeria. Rather it is a gathering meant to rebuild the damaged reputation of the government by presenting a semblance that Nigerians are talking when indeed what is happening is that a few people have been invited closer to dine with the government and thereby reduce the opposition against this brutally anti-poor government. ERC urge the mass of students not to entertain a single shred of hope that the six delegates presented by National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) will ever represent their best interests. The reasons are not far-fetched: One, NANS as an organisation has in the recent years failed woefully to represent the best interests of students concerning issues such as education funding and democratic management of schools. During the last strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which was waged for adequate funding of the public universities, the national leadership of NANS came out in support of the Federal government. Right now public Polytechnics and Colleges of Education have been shut for months yet NANS has not deemed it urgent to call a nationwide protest to compel government to meet ASUP and COEASUs demands. Against this background, it should be clear to all discerning minds that the six delegate slots allocated to NANS is not an appreciation of the weight of the students population in society as some impressionable minds have said. Rather it is actually a celebration of the complete ideological capitulation of NANS to the government. Two, the six delegates that would purportedly speak for students at the National Conference were not elected directly by the mass of students. So hasty and undemocratic was the Yinka-Gbadebo NANS leaderships urge to partake in the criminal wastage of our collective wealth which the National Conference actually is that the mass of students were not even consulted through local congresses to draw up a collective agenda which the six delegates are meant to canvass at the National Conference. We therefore urge all Students Unions across tertiary institutions to condemn NANS participation at the National Conference. Instead of participating in a National Conference whose resolutions just like the Obasanjo Conference would be dumped in the lobby of the National Assembly and that is the end of it, NANS should begin an immediate mobilisation of rank and file of Nigeria students across various campuses to build a mass campaign for meeting of the demands of ASUP and COEASU, reversal of hiked fees at the Lagos State University (LASU), dropping of criminal charges against UNIUYO 44, proper funding of public education sector, right to independent students unionism, against privatisation and commercialisation of public education sector and democratic running of schools. We make bold to say none of these salient issues would be addressed by the National Conference and these are the issues that NANS need to fight over on the streets of Nigeria instead of scheming to benefit from the N7 billion National Conference largesse. “To us in the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), the pretentious political prognosis of the Jonathan National Confab will not in any way solve Nigerias socio-political problems or salvage the poor conditions of the countrys public education sector. The national confab with delegates appointed from different ethnic, cultural, professional groups and civil societies is designed to promote President Jonathans second term bid and not to address the countrys political and socio-economic problems.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 20:02:59 +0000
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