Babafemi Ojudu, a former presidential media assistant and leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has questioned the National Association of Nigerian Students’ (NANS) silence in the face of widespread student kidnappings.
The APC leader bemoaned the fact that bandits are kidnapping students and even schoolchildren while the student organization says nothing in a message posted on his official Facebook page.
“What became of the group that served as Nigerian students’ conscience? When did it start to distance itself from the hopes and anxieties of the people it was meant to symbolise?
“These are really unsettling times. We should all be concerned about a country where students no longer have a voice in the face of such existential challenges.
He questioned, “When students stop speaking for students, who then speaks for the future?”
Ojudu pointed out that while Nigerian students remain silent about the country’s security and economic problems, students in other nations, such as India, “are on the streets protesting examination leakages and the scourge of unemployment.”