Mohammed Fawehinmi, the eldest son of the late human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), has berated President Goodluck Jonathan for mismanaging the country’s resources.Fawehinmi: Images of An Iconic Social Crusader”, in Lagos on Tuesday.
The younger Fawehinmi regretted that in spite of the security situation in the country, the Jonathan administration was still campaigning for the president ahead of the 2015 general elections.
He said, “The President we have now is just an occupant, he does not know what he is doing and he is disgracing Nigeria. He has been spending money on his campaign to return in 2015 but my prayer is that he never gets there. Imagine Boko Haram, declaring a part of the North as a caliphate. It was during his tenure that Boko Haram became so powerful and it was his administration that saw the advent of Ebola.
“I blame the Ebola outbreak on the government because they knew about it since 1972 but it is the laziness of our leaders that caused it. Jonathan has no plan for Nigeria. The amount of money we earn in six months is enough for the entire West Africa.
“We should have a president that will think like my father and Chief Obafemi Awolowo. NANS right now is a disgrace. The students enrich themselves and some earn as high as N500, 000 as salary for holding a position in NANS”.
The co-author of the book, Mr. Richard Akinnola, said the conduct of NANS was shameful and the association was rubbishing the legacy of Gani, who fought on the side of students for over two decades.
He wondered why NANS under the leadership of Yinka Gbadebo, honoured Jonathan and ignored other Nigerians who were more worthy.
He said, “If Gani was alive to see Nigeria today, he would have a heart attack. How can NANS give GCON award to a person who shut schools for five months? Why didn’t they give a post-humous award to Gani or Chief Alao Aka-Basorun? These were men who provided free legal service to students during the time of military dictatorship. Is this the level Nigeria has sunk into?”
A former NANS President, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, who is also the editor-in-chief, Nigerian Democratic Report, said the decay in NANS could be traced to the general rot in Nigerian society.
Arogundade, who was in charge of NANS in the early 80’s, said the body had been compromised because higher institutions had whittled down the powers of student unions.
He said, “What is happening in NANS is a reflection of the general decay in society. NANS can only be as good as its society. During my time, we fought against the commercialisation of education along with the Nigeria Labour Congress but it is different today where you have a student union member being a special adviser to the President on student unions so it is all madness.
“I was even told that in some schools, student union members collect sitting allowance. During my time, our sitting allowance was a bottle of Coke and meat pie”.
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