NANS: Asefon Addresses Press, Reaffirms Revolutionary Leadership

NANS: Asefon Addresses Press, Reaffirms Revolutionary Leadership.

The newly elected President of National Association of Nigerian Students(NANS), Comrade Asefon Sunday has addressed press and reaffirmed pro- students, and also pro-masses leadership.

” I would like to seize this opportunity to commend members of my team for a job well done and to also appreciate everyone who contributed one way or the other to my emergence. Special appreciation to all Nigerian students who through their SUG Presidents democratically and overwhelmingly elected me, as their president”, Asefon thanked.

The full press statement reads :
”

BEING A TEXT OF PRESS PRESENTED BY THE NEWLY ELECTED NANS PRESIDENT, COMRADE SUNDAY ASEFON ON MONDAY 7TH DECEMBER 2020 AT THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, ABUJA
Gentlemen of the Press,
Please permit me to welcome you all to this maiden press conference and also appreciate your coverage of our just concluded National Convention where I was elected as the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
Also, I would like to seize this opportunity to commend members of my team for a job well done and to also appreciate everyone who contributed one way or the other to my emergence. Special appreciation to all Nigerian students who through their SUG Presidents democratically and overwhelmingly elected me, as their president.
I humbly use this medium to appreciate all stakeholders, zonal leaderships of NANS, JCC NANS leaders, Students Union governments and all those who believe in this project irrespective of their official capacities. This appreciation also goes to the entire national security apparatus, most especially the Department of State Security Services and the Nigerian Police Force who participated impeccably towards ensuring a smooth transition of this association’s leadership.
In the course of securing this mandate, I toured all the 36 States of the Federation to campaign and sell my candidacy to students. My team and I made our deductions from various conversation in diverse languages, about the need to hit the ground running immediately after the election. There is a call for a redefinition of leadership and I am here, heeding your calls fellow students. Together, we are on course to make our association become the most vibrant youth advocacy tool in Nigeria in line with our pedigree.
Again, I assure Nigerian students of my resolve to do all within my abilities to protect our interests, place the interest and welfare of Nigerian students above all considerations and reposition our association to take its rightful place in the centre of our nation’s polity. To this end, I will immediately set out to engage stakeholders within the educational sector to add our strong voice against the overstayed ASUU Strike. I will be consulting with the representative of the Federal Government and ASUU with the aim of prevailing on them to find a centre point for amicable resolution to ensure we return to school. I am convinced that this high-level consultation will yield a positive result and we will not have to resort to mobilizing students to mount any protest to this ridiculous long stay at home. NANS under my watch, will not be complicit to such unending strike and never again will Nigerian students have to stay home this long.
Permit me to reiterate again that NANS under my watch will take a pronounced exception to cases of victimization of student leaders and activist on our campuses. Arbitrary expulsion, suspension, and rustication of students for dissent and peaceful protest shall be met with stiff opposition from NANS under my administration. We will fight for recognition and retention of our strong voice as students without fear of intimidation or oppression. On this note, I will be initiating a partnership with the Nigeria Bar Association with the aim of providing legal representation for victimized students across the thirty-six States of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory.
The NBA have always been our strategic partners during our more vibrant days and they represented students and ensured justice is well served at all time. Under its new revolutionary leadership, the NBA are in a better positioned to be of significant help in returning NANS to its glorious old days regardless of the realities of this time.
I have made a commitment to myself to ensure that NANS within the one year of my administration will have a students’ house which will serve as our secretariat. This is long overdue and as a reformer, I shall ensure that this dream is achieved.
Under my watch, we will build strategic partnership with development organisation to ensure that our students on campus enjoy better welfare in terms ICT, Smart Campus, and access to resources for research and academic productivity. We will also be working with Nigerian students in diaspora to ensure that their welfare is guaranteed, and their expectations met, by the Nigerian Government. Nigerian students abroad on scholarships will find in our leadership, a strategic partner to fight their cause and prevent them from experiencing any further humiliation on account of unmet expectations by the Government.
My administration shall also be working with the private sector, especially those that provides services on our campuses to ensure they support the campus community in complimenting the effort of government and institution managements to ensure that the students enjoy better welfare. Ours shall be for the students and no further.
From time to time, I shall brief you on our plans, our achievements, and any challenges. I therefore call on all Nigerian students to be peaceful, law abiding and stand for their rights. Nigerian students will find in us partners they can trust and comrades that will stand with them without season.
Again, I would like to extend profound appreciation to everyone who made this journey possible, who supported the emergence of this mandate in one way or the other, all senators who voted and students across the country who sent their best wishes.

To the greatest Nigerian students, I stand to declare today that I will not fail you and when our term is over, NANS shall be better than we met it.

Thank you.
Comrade Sunday Asefon
NANS Revolutionary President.”