Students and non students all over the country have continued to react to the broadcast and published statements of the national president of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, Comrade Dauda Mohammed, and have referred to his u-turn over the fuel subsidy removal as an unpopular move which is capable of disintegrating Nigerian students.
Some of the students who reacted on face book and also spoke on the condition of anonymity, expressed sadness at the decision of the president which they said were a total blackmail and a slap on the entire student’s body with the claim that they were not carried along and the present executive members do not represent their aspirations.
Some of them who claimed that the NANS president and his team must have been bought over by the federal government, hence the move, called on all students to as a matter of urgency arise and fight for their birthright which they claimed has been sold.
They said, ‘The students of Nigeria need to take a positive stand on the so-called leadership of NANS, otherwise your birth right will still be played with. Imagine what your so-called leader was saying. Are Nigerian students foolish to that extent?”
It will be recalled that the leadership of NANS had meet with President Goodluck Jonathan on the 12th of December 2011 concerning the fuel subsidy removal and had categorically told the government that it was against its removal. It was also on record that they were assured that all Nigerians including NANS will be taken along with the month of its removal tagged to April after several consultations had been made.
It’s also on record that the president had screamed foul over the case of impersonation in which he alleged that the second runner-up during the campaign in the person of Mr Adakole Ochia was invited to sign a document agreeing with the federal government on the fuel subsidy removal which was against the agreement the association had with the president.
After other consultations between NANS and some government officials, the association called for a press conference and the president appealed to students nationwide to shun protests and trust the association’s leadership in its on-going dialogue with the federal government.
He said ‘We assure our teeming members nationwide that should the dialogue fail to address our propositions already tabled before the government, our capacity in resisting the policy will be enforced to the latter’.
He further said ‘NANS appreciates the courage of President Goodluck Jonathan in removing the fraudulent fuel subsidy and agrees in totality with the federal government on the inevitability of the removal. We strongly believe that the subsidy removal is a bold step in fighting the corruption that has defied all known accounting principle in NNPC’.