Former Nigerian Senator, Dino Melaye, has shared the story of one Comrade Danlad Sunday Oladele, the pioneer president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), who spent several years of his life fighting for the release of his certificate by the management of Yaba College of Technology.
According to Senator Dino, Oladele’s certificate was withheld by YABATECH as punishment for his activism during his days in the college as a student. He narrates that, Oladele and his team had in the 1980s fought for the restoration of the then disbanded National Union of Nigerian Students by the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo.
He was said to have led others, and they regrouped, wrote a new constitution, and in 1980, founded NANS. But, however, this made them the target of the government who meted varying punishments on them such as expulsion, rustication, and withholding of their certificates.
Oladele fought YABATECH for decades to get his certificate and, with the intervention of the Senate Committee, the management of YABATECH agreed to present him with his certificate at their next convocation but unfortunately, he has died two weeks after the announcement.
The National Association of Nigerian Students has vowed to retrieve the certificate of its pioneer president.
