NANS reviled their agenda for national conference which is to present issues that affect Nigerian students and youths in general.
First and foremost, it is very pathetic that we still have students of polytechnics and colleges of education staying at home for almost eight months due to a prolonged strike by their academic staff.
So, one of the major issues we are going to table before this conference is that of finding a lasting solution to the recurrence of strikes in institutions of higher learning in Nigeria. I believe that this conference can find a lasting solution to that problem.
Another issue which we want to present before this conference for endorsement is the Nigeria Students Union Bill which will ensure that students unionism in our tertiary institutions is made compulsory.
When you are talking about the National Conference, it is supposed to discuss the future of this country. Future leaders of this country are supposed to be groomed through the leadership roles they play in the students unions of tertiary institutions.
But what we have across the country today is that the culture of students unionism has been bastardized by the authorities of most institutions of higher learning because they feel they don’t need anybody to challenge their authority.
This is why in over 60 percent of the tertiary institutions we have across the country today, we don’t have democratically elected students unions.
What we have all over the place are transition committees and students representative councils which in most cases are had picked by the authorities of such institutions. Such unelected student representatives always end up dancing to the tune of the authorities of the various institutions that appointed them. We also want this bill to be passed by the National Assembly.
Interest-free student loans
Another issue we want this conference to consider is that of granting interest-free loans to indigent students who cannot afford to pay the exorbitant fees that are being charged by various tertiary institutions today.
Most tertiary institutions in the country today have told us in very clear terms that education is not cheap.
If education is not cheap, then the nation ought to be able to assist indigent students have access to quality education.
When we have interest free loans that can be accessible to indigent students can to enable them to pursue their education in tertiary institutions, I think we would be getting closer to the promised land as far as the future of Nigeria is concerned.
We would also present the issue of unemployment before this conference. The rate of unemployment has become so high that you have up to 70,000 people assembling here in Abuja for a job test that ended up in a stampede where we lost seven Nigerian youths who died in their prime. This is because the nation has not provided employment opportunities for the youths.
That bill that was presented to the National Assembly to ensure that every Nigerian graduate is eventually employed would have to be reconsidered. If the government is not yet sure of how to provide jobs for graduates, then it must evolve a scheme whereby every unemployed graduate is paid a minimum stipend of maybe N20,000 per month.
