The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has promised that it will not get involved in the planned nationwide protest that will occur on August 1st.
Lucky Emonefe, the National President of NANS, had made this disclosure during a meeting with the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, in Abuja on Friday.
The meeting was led by Sunday Asefon, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Student Engagement.
Emonefe admitted that he was aware of the significant hardship being experienced by citizens nationwide due to the implementation of recent reforms and policies by the government.
To this, he urged President Bola Tinubu to put a mechanism in place to reduce the hunger among Nigerians as a result of hardship caused by the removal of fuel subsidy in 2023.
Prior to this, the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, had acknowledged the inflated cost of living in the country adding that the government had been rolling out mitigatory measures to alleiate the hardship being faced by Nigerians.
Mamman then highlighted how the Federal Government was launching an expanded transformative scholarship program, geared towards supporting the education of 45,000 students across the country.
What They’re Saying
“We want to say that there is hunger in the land and Nigerian students are most affected. We are aware that palliatives were given to governors.
“We are saying that as the government is distributing palliatives, they should remember the student constituencies.
“Though we have challenges, we want to say that we have resolved to be law abiding and not to join any chaos in the society.” he said.
What This Means
NANS’ decision to to backtrack on the scheduled protest can be viewed as cowardly especially given that it is a student body that should have their best interests at heart.
As students have lamented the high cost of living in their respective states and institutions, NANS non- proactive stance on reaching a resolution with the Nigerian government might not be enough given the situation of the country.
