Mohammed Fawehinmi, who is the eldest son
of the late human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), has
berated President Goodluck Jonathan for mismanaging the resources of the
country.
Mohammed said this during the public
presentation of his book titled, Gani Fawehinmi: Images of An Iconic
Social Crusader, in Lagos on Tuesday.
He said it was disappointing that despite
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 20 years.
He wondered why NANS, under the leadership of Yinka Gbadebo, honoured Jonathan and ignored others 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 President of NANS, Mr. Lanre
Arogundade, who is also the editor-in-chief, Nigerian Democratic Report,
said the decay of NANS could be attributed to the general decay in
Nigerian society.
Arogundade, who was in charge of NANS in
the early 1980s, said the organisation had been compromised because
higher institutions had limited 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.”
