NANS faults Obasanjo's plan to set up private varsity
By Charity Ibanga
PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo's plan to establish his private university has drawn criticisms from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
According to the students, the plan of Obasanjo to set up Bells University in Epe, Lagos State, "is an overwhelming wealth of evidence of his administration's desperate commitment to make education an exclusive preserve of the rich".
Secretary General of the NANS, Lagos chapter, Lawani Ayodapo, disclosed the position of the association during a press briefing at the weekend.
He said: "We use this medium to seek the government's self-redress of the proposed fiscal autonomy. It is uncalled for. Who does Obasanjo expect to attended the university when people are already complaining about the expensiveness of the existing ones Rather, he should focus his attention on the betterment of the existing universities".
Ayodapo added: "Bells University establishment and other various World Bank-induced reform programmes of privatisation and commercialisation of public utilities will only serve and protect the whims and caprices of the rich and the very rich in the country".
The students' leader stated that the recent breakdown of law and order in some higher institutions was a manifestation of the general collapse of the socio-political and economic sectors of the nation.
According to him, the insecurity of lives and property on campus is caused by a total neglect of the robust recreational sporting activities by authorities of higher institutions and the replacement of popular independent student unionism by state-sponsored secrete cults which are mainly responsible for campus violence.
Ayodapo also disclosed that there was a plan by the student leaders in Lagos State check campus violence with a project tagged: "Alternative to Violence". This programme will entail symposia and lectures.
The students called on the Federal Government to subsidise the cost of importing petroleum products so that the pump prices of the products would be reduced.
On road maintenance, they said: "We are glad for the late mutual understanding established by the men of Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA). We would appreciate if such understanding is extended to a mutual working relationship so as to be able to clear our roads of not-road-worthy vehicles and miscreants who parade themselves illegally to extort money from other road users."`
