Nigerian students in the Southwest of the country have urged their leaders against endorsing some of the major presidential contenders under the auspices of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
According to news reports, the NANS Southwest Coordinator, Adejuwon Emmanuel Olatunji, issued a statement on Wednesday night warning its zonal leaders not to drag the organization into any controversy over the endorsement of some presidential contenders.
According to him, the leadership of the association was not involved in the ongoing conflict of interest between some of the zonal leaders over the endorsement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Bola Tinubu.
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Newsmen reports that the association’s reaction is in response to the NANS Southwest leadership’s alleged sponsorship of Tinubu (Zone D) and the support of another faction for Atiku.
In a statement, the association (ZoneD) committed to provide all students with a structure to help Tinubu win the upcoming elections.
It said, “We have watched over the months on the electioneering proceedings of the country, and after several manifestos from all presidential candidates and due consultation with the PCC Directorate for Grassroots Mobilisation, Orientation and Engagement Southwest led by Otunba Titi Tomori-Ponle, we hereby find Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu worthy to be the next President of Nigeria.”
However, in his response to the southwest of the organization, Olatunji stated that the issue arose because the Deputy Zonal Coordinator and the Public Relations Officer disagreed on the two candidates and apparently favored different parties and people.
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He claimed that all of the association’s national leaders and other zonal leaders in the southwest are unaware of these two politicians’ self-endorsement.
“There are other NANS national leaders and stakeholders in the South West,” Olatunji said, adding that the so-called “kangaroo” support came as a surprise to the organisation. All of these figures were unaware, and the self-endorsement came as a surprise to everyone.
“NANS Zone D and the leaders and stakeholders in the zone have forthwith refuted the kangaroo endorsements and assured the students of the South West that they would never be traded for peanuts in exchange for their destinies and hopeful tomorrow.
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“NANS is an independent body and it is bigger than any individual student at all times. It would therefore be inappropriate for an individual student or student leader to endorse anyone on the behalf of millions of South West students. The endorsement hence does not hold water and it has been considered as a deceit of the highest order because the said leaders proclaiming the endorsement do not, as student leaders, have the outright authority and power to do so.”
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