WE WERE ABLE TO SCRAP THE BALLOT SYSTEM FOR NYSC MOBILISATION DURING MY TENURE – COMRADE YINKA DADA.

 A former President National Association of Nigerian Student (NANS) 2007/2008, comrade YINKA DADA JB, popularly known as ALUTA SADDAM, speaks with THE INFORMANT247 correspondent on the current state of the nation, most particularly, the educational sector. He also states among the achievements they were able to record during his administration.

Can we meet you sir?

I am com. Yinka Dada JB, alutaly known as Aluta Saddam. And by the providence of God almighty and divine intervention of God, I was a firmer PRO of NANS (2003/3004) and also the former National president (2007/2008). I still remain a comrade fighting for social equity and justice with a passion for liberation of the most oppressed, marginalized and neglected section of the Nigerian populace.

It is a passion and call to duty that I have choose to attend to and as long as I live, I want that aspect of my live to remain alive and even when I am no more, I hope some other people will continue with the struggle.

What can you say about the current state of educational sector in Nigeria

Looking at the state of the education sector in Nigeria, the story has not change, because we have not done anything new to correct the decrepit state of facilities and infrastructure in our schools. The government has not honour agreement entered to by Academic Unions and stakeholders in the educational sector over time. The condition of students keep deteriorating and it is the most alarming and worrisome part, because without the students there cannot be an institution, we can have lecturers, Admins, and non-academic staffs, but we have all of them because there are people to be groomed, build  and moulded to become leaders and managers of our nation.

However, there is no hope for the educational sector, if only our leaders can come up with a resolve to resuscitate the ailing state of the education sector,and come up with one resolve that no nation is bigger than the state of literates in that particular  nation, which means everything citizen have the right to access qualitative education affordably. For now, the state of education sector in Nigeria is pitiable, alarming and deserving of intervention.

As we all know that the educational sector has continue to  decay over the years, what had been the contributions of NANS towards solving this issues?

Of course when I was active on NANS, i did pushed for some critical solutions to the conditions  they we felt was not healthy then, but as it stands now, I have outgrown that, but I still have concern and passion for what I fought for then. I believe on the current crop of NANS leadership led by Chinuobo Obasi, IBB, that there is need to revert the education sector. Part of the thing I love as an individual, as i am not in the position to change things, is to add my voice. It is in the wisdom of this current NANS leadership to convene a senate sitting were student leaders would deliberate on challenges confronting them.

The best thing that would happen to the education  sector is for our leaders to become sincere and think about the future of young Nigerians who will lead the nation tomorrow.

Where do you wish to see the educational sector in the next five years.

Of course, we don’t have to deny the fact that Nigerian youths and students are very intelligent and even when our education sector is in a state a disperse, they can still compte favorably with there counterparts around the globe.

My wish and charges on the government is that the education sector should be taken seriously so that the nation under which we are bounded together will nor suffer from capital and productive expertise in the next five years. In the next five years i expect Nigeria to compete with America, Russia, China and other developed nations of the world. I expect that Nigeria would no longer be referred to as a developing, but developed nation, no nation can grow bigger than the state of her youth and the current state of our youth is not suggestive enough that Nigeria in the next five years we are coming close, but we can use the next five years to come up with a strategy or with a policy that can place Nigeria on the edge of competing with other nations of the world in at least the next ten years.

What impacts do you think the current senate sitting will have on the state of the county.

Thank you very much. I have read on social media some of the issues to be discussed, but I have not have the opportunity to meet with the current NANS leadership, particularly on the senate sitting, and the intentions for the sitting. But I felt its high time for the Nigerian students to sat and discussed the challenges confronting them.

 They have set a stage for that and i want to believe that having set a stage, the sitting must be issue based. They should discuss issues of the economy, education sector, and particularly 26 percent of UNESCO recommendations on education sector among other things in the annual budget. And also the perennial strike embarked on by Academic Unions.

There was a time when students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria are given tickets for free meal upon resumption till the semester or session ends, we can return back to such a system were government can subsidize the welfare of Nigeria students through the healthcare and a very good learning environment. If I am opportune to meet with the leadership of NANS before the sitting, these are cogent issues I would love to discuss with them. We want them to charge government to implement policies that would ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerian students.

What were the success​ recorded during your tenure as the president of NANS.

As it is said in quote, a prophet does not have honour in his own. I always have this believe that i should not be the one to speak or talk about any of the achievements that we were able to record during my tenure, because it was not just my effort but a team work. I owe these achievements to members of my team and Nigerian students who supported us to go that far. 

However, there is one aspect of my administration that I love to speak about everytime because I really felt that most of Nigerians don’t even know how they benefited from that policy. In 2007, I could remember that there was a time when there is that policy that anybody either University or polytechnic graduates who wants to go for Service (NYSC) must go through ballot process. Ballot process in the sense that people will pick Yes or No. The school management arranges for that, and as a graduate, they all come to pick either Yes or No. If you pick No, then for two consecutive years you would not be able to go for service. I led my team of executives to fight this unexplainable policy and by the glory of God almighty, we met with the then president of the federal republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and the DG of NYSC, and through this process we were able to secure 7.4billion Naira. On the table of discussion as I am enjoying this interview with you, for Nigerian graduates, that’s now what is being known as batch C. I have so many others that I can talk on but I don’t want to go into my personal achievements. I am happy to talk about this because each time I saw anybody going for service and I asked ‘when are you going for mobilization?’ and they replied, ‘i am in batch C, stream a or b’, then in my mind I feel so happy. There are many more to mention but I will like to leave that for history.