Factional president-elect of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Pedro Obi, speaks to DANIEL AYANTOYE about the controversy surrounding his emergence, among other issues.
You recently emerged as president-elect of the National Association of Nigerian Students at a convention. How did you achieve this?
I did my best in line with our constitution. The election was conducted, and at the end of the day, I won with a vote of 212 against my opponents; Sunday had 49 votes, and Lucky Emonefe had about 64 votes.
But Lucky Emonefe has also said he won the election. What do you think about this development?
Surprisingly, he is claiming who is not. Of course, it is also not new, even though it is not a good thing that we should celebrate. Notwithstanding, it is important that whatever we are doing, we do it right. Meanwhile, the person you are talking about is not the only one claiming to have won this same election. Other people claim to be who they are not. I have been in this organisation for quite a while, and I understand perfectly how things are done. But at the right time, Nigerian students will know who their president is. But I will advise that whoever is parading himself (as NANS president) should, at this point, toe the path of maturity and allow Nigerian students to enjoy a new government.
During the election, who was the chairman of the electoral committee that declared your victory?
People outside do not understand how NANS operates. NANS does not have an electoral committee, but we have a convention planning committee that has a subcommittee on election management. The constitution already empowered an official, who is the Assistant General Secretary of NANS, to take charge as the chief accreditation officer. You will bear witness to the fact that the integrity of any delegate election lies in the accreditation process. Once that is compromised, the entire process is destroyed.
If you are claiming to have won, the question is: where did the accreditation officer conduct the accreditation? If these people can give a simple chronology of where this accreditation was done, then fine. Of course, you can’t give what you don’t have. You can’t just pack people into a place and declare yourself president. The election in which I emerged followed due process; the AGS carried out accreditation for delegates, and the election was held.
During a press conference, you said some political powers were trying to hijack your mandate. How true is that?
Of course, it is not a private thing; it is already in the public domain. Around two and three months before the convention, we saw some agents of government going around to publicly endorse a particular candidate. In the cause of our campaign, we went to the zones and the people where the votes would come from. We went to the length and breadth of this country, canvassing for votes. So, whatever they were doing in Abuja was not my headache. We had a situation where two ministers, the DG of A-list parastatal, and a top official of the Federal Government moved from one hotel to the other, where our delegates were camped, to campaign for a particular candidate. It was surprising.
How did you know about this?
You will see them boasting on WhatsApp, and they moved in a convoy from to one hotel where the delegates were camped to another. Unfortunately for these people, our delegates, whom we had been with since day one, were always telling us what was happening.
You also said the security agencies were used. How possible is that?
The head of the security team that was in charge of the election was replaced three times. It was that bad, and it is not good for a democratic process. There were efforts to frustrate the accreditation process. The election was really between me and the people who put themselves together against us, not even the person whose name you mentioned, yet we triumphed because we understood the terrain.
Reports have it that one of the candidates was sponsored by the son of a popular politician. How true is this claim?
I can’t say, but what can be bigger than these people? Maybe it is for their ego. For me, I picked the interest of being NANS president because I see it as a platform to contribute to national development. I know that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a man who believes in capacity. If he were to be aware of all these things, he would have warned them. He is not aware. You can’t say, because you are close to the government, you want to become NANS president by all means. We have seen people like that in the past; it can’t work.
Some have said you are not qualified to contest the election as a postgraduate student. Don’t you feel that is a minus on your side?
The current NANS constitution was adopted at the Sokoto Congress in February 2022. There are over 10 people who have expressed interest in the NANS presidency, but I want to tell you that we are just two that are qualified. Article 15, sub-section 2, under eligibility to contest, stated it clearly. I am currently a PhD student at Delta State University, Abraka, and the constitution provides that I am eligible. Again, the constitution makes it clear in Paragraph 5, which states that only students with a track record of verifiable experience shall be eligible to contest for president and senate president.
Such a person must have attended at least three national senate meetings and have held offices at the zonal and national levels, including standing committees. None of these people claiming the presidency of NANS has held any office in NANS before. I was a former PRO, Zonal Coordinator, and former deputy Senate President. Ordinarily, we shouldn’t be talking about whether he (Lucky) had a stake or not because ab initio, he is not even qualified.
Was that enough to say he is not qualified?
Yes, I put it to you that he is not also a student of any known institution in Nigeria. Imagine that it was said that Lucky completed his National Diploma in 2003, about 20 years ago, and now he is claiming to be studying for NCE. What does that tell you? It shows that he is not a graduate. He doesn’t have a degree. If he had, he would have tendered a degree to at least serve this organisation. Today, you cannot claim to be a student at the school he claimed without JAMB. Can they ask him to provide his JAMB admission letter? You cannot just go to one institution and claim studentship because you have a relationship there and the school will cover you up.
NANS and other student unions are known for having factions after every election. Why is this so?
Today, anybody can wake up from anywhere, undermine the procedure that has been laid down, and declare himself as NANS president. This is possible because of the structural failure in NANS, which we are here to fix. For instance, no one can declare himself president of Nigeria. It will be taken as a treasonable felony. Also, you can’t declare yourself as the SUG president of a particular institution because there are authorities that will handle it. In this case, they want to deliberately use him (Lucky) to disrupt NANS, as they feel that nobody can defeat me. The next thing is to create confusion. I know what he is doing is a mere distraction, but I am not distracted.
Since you won the election, the incumbent president is supposed to hand it over to you. What do you think may be delaying that?
This is because of the lack of respect for constituted authority and because people feel nobody will do anything, but I think this should be changed. I also understand that there have been forces around the outgoing president, but I know he will do the right thing when the inauguration is fixed.
