They say ‘as the going gets tough, only the tough gets going’. The National Association of Nigerian students (NANS) under the leadership of Comrade Prince Miaphen has slated 1st – 4th of September, 2016 as the date of completion of the aborted Gombe National Convention. SUG Presidents from all the tertiary institutions across the country are expected to gather at the Old Parade Ground Abuja to elect who’ll take the mantle of the leadership of Nigerian students – a process they started at Pantami Stadium Gombe.
The ‘who is who’ of those eyeing the top seat is what this piece will look into.
The aborted Gombe Convention was but a flash, a preamble to the expectation.
When at Gombe, there were four main contenders;
1. Sheriff E. E. Zadok of Unizik
2. Aruna Kadiri of UniBen
3. Igwe Ude-Umanta of EBSU
4. Chinonso Obasi AKA IBB of EBSU
Of all these four, each of them has what it takes to be president of NANS and believe that he’ll clinch the top position.
1. Sheriff believed to be very young, handsome, intelligent, genuine student and above all somebody who campaigned thoroughly and penetrated especially the North East. He hails from the core East Anambra, Nnamdi Azikwe University.
2. Igwe Ude – Umanta is a prince. Also young and intelligent somebody. He was once the SUG President at UniAbuja. He then, relied solely on the power of the incumbent in which he was alleged to have been the anointed candidate of the immediate past President of the NANS, Mr. Tijjani Usman.
3. Aruna Kadiri is from Edo state. He’s the only Muslim candidate among the top contenders. I learnt that Aruna competed for the post almost 10 years back, when somebody like me was only a student of may be junior secondary school. Religion influence may add flavour to his soup.
4. IBB who hails from the same university with Igwe, i.e. Ebonyi State University was said to have believed that he’s the youngest contender. He believes in the power of thugs and was said to be sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party.
On whatever note, these four were the main contenders of Gombe Convention.
NANS has a process which must be followed. First of all, the Convention chairman will be elected by the senators (SUG Presidents), and then the elected Convention chairman will come up and dissolve the cabinet, dissolve the Convention Planning Committee (CPC) and announce his own members of the committee and then conduct the election. It is a tradition of the NANS that candidates sponsor their allies to contest for the position of Convention chairman. The act will serve as a litmus test and it’ll also ease their aspiration, should their candidate win.
At Gombe, the office of the Convention chairman was contested by four as a reflection of these four top contenders;
1. Prince Miaphen who was before his election the Director General of Campaign of Aruna Kadiri Campaign Organization.
2. Yemi Likedat also the DG of Sheriff Campaign Team
3. Ahmed Jibrin who was sponsored by TeamIBB
4. Ibrahim Yusuf who was sent by Igwe Ude-Umanta.
The expectation was that all those going to vote for a particular candidate will start by voting for his anointed convention chairman. Therefore, whoever wins is strongly expected to win the race due to the fact that he has the majority and the that his boy becomes the convention chairman who’s responsible for conducting the election.
The Gombe Convention chairman was won by Prince Miaphen who was/is a boy to Aruna Kadiri. He won with 71 votes. Followed by Yemi Likedat; boy of Sheriff, with 63 votes. Followed by IBB and Igwe boys, Ahmed Jibrin with 56 and Ibrahim Yusuf with 51 votes respectively.
That election of the Convention Chairman if anything, showed clearly that should election be conducted properly, Aruna Kadiri will definitely win. This incited the other candidates having clearly saw a defeat, to disrupted the process under the leadership of Chinonso Obasi AKA IBB. I was inside the venue waiting to vote for my choice when the entrance was broken by the Chinonso IBB and got inside. He threatened that everybody should take his leave. A situation that forced the senators to run for their lives which resulted to accidents – fractures and injuries. Soon after the thug and his thugs chased the senators away, everybody left the stadium because it became clear that something was amiss. We from Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara left early morning the following day, only to browse on facebook, and other media outlets to saw Chinonso AKA IBB declaring himself the President of NANS. We wondered how, why and when? But as a friend say, IBB may be the President of National Association of Nigerian Thugs (NANT) instead. IBB created a faction which was uncalled of him.
Since that very day, many things happened in NANS. IBB declared faction, with Egalitarian as his Senate President. Tijjani Usman tried to maintain a faction as well, claiming that he wasn’t dissolved. Ochai Roys, the Senate President also tried claiming to be the only somebody in NANS because nobody is empowered to dissolve him by the virtue of the constitution. One George Tom AKA Aluta Twin also declared himself the President. Prince Miaphen, the elected Convention Chairman also declared himself Acting President. Though some accused him of trying to hijack the Association by declaring himself, but some still believe that he has NO option but to declare himself acting, since NO association can stand without president. But the fact remains that with the title of Acting President attaching to Convention Chairman or without, the senators only know Prince Miaphen because they solely elected him as a whole.
And Abuja Convention?
I’ll start by commending the good effort of Prince Miaphen who kept to his words of conducting election six weeks from the aborted Gombe Convention. I’ll also commend the three main contenders, Igwe Ude-Umanta, Sheriff E. E. Zadok, and Aruna Kadiri who stood by the Convention Chairman up till this moment. The senators that shunned away the NANT President, IBB must also be commended for shunning away falsehood, most especially the senators from Ebonyi and Ondo Axis where the self acclaimed President and Senate President hail.
Now, the direction has changed in favour of another candidate instead of another. It was believed that Igwe Ude-Umanta was popular, but what affected him during the aborted Convention was his romance with the incumbent which some people see to be the most unpopular NANS President ever.
Aruna Kadiri is still powerful because of his close relationship with the Convention Chairman, Prince Miaphen. But again, Prince tendered his resignation letter from the office of the DG campaign of Aruna the moment he emerged the Convention chairman and promised to be just and never partial.
Chinonso Obasi declared faction and therefore is out of the race. But where are the 56 senators that voted for his anointed Convention chairman, Jibrin Ahmad? Have they sided with him or with the NANS? The reality is obvious that 90% of the senators that voted for him opted from his camp and sided with NANS since when he declared himself the president.
Now; the questions that are glaring are as follows:
1. Who will get the support of the over 50 senators that voted for IBB the last time? Kadiri, Igwe, or Sheriff.
2. Igwe is likely to have some, since he and IBB represent same constituency, i.e. Ebonyi State University, therefore have equal support in their zone.
3. Sheriff is also very likely to have the majority of IBB senators because he is said to be courageous based on the outcome of the Convention where his candidate popular Yemi Likedat emerged 2nd. He therefore penetrated through the senators supporting IBB before, and got his vast share.
4. The influence of ethnic and religion is forever in Nigerians. Aruna Kadiri, being the only Muslim contender from the Southeast, may gain the sympathy of some religious influenced senators, though NOT all those who support Aruna are influenced by religion. I still wonder if religion play a (vital) role in NANS. It is confirmed that religion has little or NO influence in the NANS politics.
However, the question of ‘who is who’ of the Abuja Convention can only be answered on the 4th of September, 2016.
What I advise the senators is to vote for the best. Whoever your consciousness tells you that he’s the best, go for him. Don’t be influenced by money or material gains, they fade and go away. Remember, you’re representing the thousands of the students in your school that posed their confidence in you.
I pray and hope that the 2016 NANS Abuja Convention will be the reason of restructuring of NANS. We really need sanity in NANS and that sanity can only be achieved by voting the best among the contenders.
Anass Muhammad Sani is the senator representing Sokoto State University, Sokoto – Nigeria.
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