Opinion: NANS, cash and Senator Buruji Kashamu

“Awards can also be called as a prize that is given away to individuals for their noteworthy activities. By getting an award, people approve that you have done something great.”

The trade by barter, cash for plague show between footloose elements who call themselves the National Association of Nigerian Students and Buruji Kashamu would have flipped through my consciousness unnoticed had Nigerians not perceive the macabre dance as an endorsement by the generality of genuine students, and by extension, Nigerian youths. Genuine I mean, students’ that got admitted, own matriculation numbers, attend lectures and pride themselves not by the profession they’ve made of studentship but by an adherence to the root word that qualifies an individual as a one: study.

When the news broke, commentators were falling on one another to remind themselves of the good old days when youths devoted their energies to putting the adult population on its toes, when activists made universities their rallying point in the fight against dictatorship, and when the voices of students from a place as far away as Enugu would force sweat out of the skin of dictators in the seat of power. With this madness taken to an all-time high, the world has echoed murmurs that ours is a youthful generation that lacks direction and philosophy, present and future, soul and redemption.

Basing their judgment on this shameful award, opinion junkies are having a field day writing youths off as money-driven persons. This is not only absurd but fallacious for the youthful population which students’ form its kernel never mince word to swing over to the opposing side of any decision made by NANS.

For a man whose extradition to the United States would have been a reality had it not been for his knavish employ of the knife and the wig, and whose election to the senate has been confirmed to be a nullity by the tribunal, the decision of NANS to have Buruji as its “Golden man of the year” (whatever that means) betrays commonsense which leaders of a youth organization like NANS should ordinarily have, scholarship which a student body ought to possess, and struggle which an association like NANS derives its legitimacy.

A notorious conglomeration of careerists, the same body a few months ago awarded former president Goodluck Jonathan the Grand Commander of Nigerian Students’ plaque in what the then NANS president, Yinka Gbadebo said was “because of the positive impact of his transformation agenda”; and now, finds no one worthy of a golden man of the year award except a man whose shadow hover across an international empire of heroin and narcotics. The president who said the “National outstanding leadership awards were usually conferred on leaders with demonstrable impact on the lives of their followers” placed the honor on Buruji’s “untiring, exemplary and compassionate leadership style.”

He continued:

“We decided to honour Senator Kashamu because we know that he is neither the richest businessman nor politician in Nigeria, yet we constantly hear of his philanthropic gestures to Nigerians of all shades and colours, especially the less-privileged.

“We are fascinated at his large-heartedness even in the face of needless distractions. We reckon that if all wealthy Nigerians are like Senator Kashamu, the country will be a better place for us all. That is why we decided to encourage him by giving him this award.”

If the decision of NANS to give an award based on large-heartedness was noble, it would have noticed an Afe Babalola, a man who built a multi-billion naira university not for his children to inherit but for the humanity; had NANS not been a body that loathes dry pockets, a Sagir Koli would have been under its radar for his heroic acts in exposing the façade called election in Ekiti state. From north down south, the country is replete with touchstones of morality and philanthropy.

Even its zonal body, NANS Zone D, whose penchant for seeking legitimacy lie in dissociating itself from the shameful activities of the national body teamed up with the unionists at TASUED to celebrate the repressive Governor Ibikunle Amosun as the best governor in the south west, a man whose difficulty in reconciling governance and dictatorship led him to the castration of a teacher who took a swipe at his supposed reforms of the education sector.

A body headed by a forty year old man called Tijani Usman, it is though not surprising why NANS under him would not slip into this abysmal state having succeeded Yinka Gbadebo, a stooge to the clueless ex-president Goodluck Jonathan.

It is apt mentioning that the disenfranchisement of “real” students’ from NANS is partly as a result of the fact that our institutions of higher learning have become oppressive machines where the authorities deploy schemes and machinations to suppress students’ movement.

Nigeria’s refusal to remove distasteful elements from the military produced men like Sanni Abacha and an election anuller like Ibrahim Babangida; its insistence to maintain a leadership of pollutants produced Diezani Allison-Madueke and Ayo Fayose; Its greatest undoing has been its lack of willpower to rid this space of insane elements and crass opportunists whose rapacity neither care about public good nor public opinion. It is though not surprising why NANS neither felt guilt nor compunction in the face of the public outcry on its celebration of Mr. Kashamu.

Whether NANS supports or opposes corruption is out of the question, its threat to unleash terror on the anti-corruption war of President Buhari has answered that. Unless and until the association restricts its membership to “Nigerian students’,” there’s nothing good that can come out of it. A body that asked lecturers to resume classes barely a month during the ASUU strike of 2013 although the government had yet to say a word is not one that should be taken serious.

Hope Yinka Gbadebo has graduated? In 2013, the militant ERC coordinator, Hassan Soweto said he met the former NANS president at the Obafemi Awolowo University on gaining admission and by the time he was leaving 11 years after, he was yet to graduate.

He is probably studying all the courses.

May the separation of the wheat from the chaff intensify.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Modiu Olaguro, a youth corps member teaches mathematics at Jebba. He shares his thoughts on www.ghettosassembly.wordpress.com Email: [email protected] and Twitter: @ModiuOlaguro

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