Hold Student Excos Accountable For Their Offices - NASSS President Urges ACP

By Aliyu Baba Mohammed, Berende Hassan, Suleiman Abdul Azeez, Mubarak Isa, Hafsat Rogo, Sani Liasu, Ayoola Yesirai T. And Hammad Abidemi.

The Caretaker Committee Chairman of National Association of Social Science Students Comrade Nura Sani Magaji has urged the ABU Campus Press to always put an eagle eye on the activities of the students' associations, especially at the department and faculty levels so as to keep them on their toes.

Comrade Nura stated this yesterday during an interview session with ABU Campus Press Reporters at the Association's Secretariat in the faculty of social services.

He said NASSS has done a lot since its inception about twenty five years ago, and for the first time under his leadership, the association not only secured venues for extra reading hours within the faculty but also organized tutorials for the students. This is unlike the previous development that the students of the faculty have to move to other people's faculties or departments to read, especially at night time.

He added that NASSS has done everything possible to bridge the gap between the students-lecturers' relationship in the faculty. Comrade Nura said the association tried its best to eliminate the phobia that students usually have towards their lecturers. This is to give the students the courage to approach their lecturers and relevant authorities whenever they have issues of any sort in the faculty in particular and the school in general.

In another development, he said the association took the responsibility of purchasing cleaning materials for the cleaners cleaning the lecture theaters and lecturers' offices, which was worth N90,000. The materials such as brooms, mops, towels etc were purchased to complement the efforts of the faculty management in these trying times.

"It's very important to keep the faculty clean so as to have a healthy environment for students. As such, we deemed it necessary to equip the cleaners with the needed cleaning materials and we purchased brooms, mops, towels and other materials amounting to N90,000 to ease the burden on the faculty management,"he said.

He said despite that NASSS has no source(s) of income other than students' dues for now; it also went ahead to organize the NASSS league to engage the members in sport activities. However, as part of its objectives of welfarism and to make life easier for its members, the association is working assiduously to establish a business center in order to subsidize certain products and services for the students. He emphasized that the leadership of the association will not relent until the stated aims and objectives in the Association's Constitution are achieved.

The Caretaker Committee Chairman further added that the Association's Constitution is currently under review to accommodate the Diploma students of all the departments within the faculty. This is to bring about inclusiveness and a sense of togetherness among the students irrespective of the nature of their program.

"We want to introduce the Diploma students into the system. Because they've been calling our attention and agitating that the faculty association has left them behind.

We met the management about it and they asked us to refer to the constitution and we did. But we realized that it wasn't stated in the constitution, hence the review to accommodate them."

Comrade Nura assured the members that the review of the constitution would not omit any of its part but rather provide space for the diploma students to be active members of the union.

While he was asked if the association does provide skills acquisition opportunities for the students, he said NASSS is operating under very limited resources to organize physical training. However, it has concluded plans to organize a webinar in the next few weeks. The online workshop will be part of the activities to celebrate NASSS at twenty five (NASSS@25). Some of other key issues or activities to carry out include: campaign against examination malpractice, sexual harassments and the issue of suicide among others.

On the forthcoming election of the new executives, Comrade implored the students to vote for credible, competent and God fearing candidates that will move the association forward. He said ethnic and religious bigotry should be eschewed in the activities of electing the new leadership. He advocated for a level playing field for all the contestants that are able to meet the requirements to contest for a position within the available offices.

He reiterated the Association's commitment in producing competent persons that have no questionable characters among the members of the association who are contesting to occupy offices.

"As far as this coming election is concerned, the association under my leadership can't take anything for granted. We've our operational policy guidelines and we can't hesitate to screen out any candidate that doesn't meet the criteria, because we can't afford to put the already established good reputation of the association in jeopardy,"he added".

Comrade Nura advised the students to always be of good behavior, and be serious with their studies. He admonished the students never to allow the aim of their presence in ABU to be defeated for anything. "The basic reason for your presence here is to acquire knowledge that will eventually be certified, work hard for it because nothing good comes easy,"he said.

He implored the lecturers and the school management to continue to be patient with the students and the situation of the education system in the country. He said (if possible) the management should exclude the returning students from its planned school fees hike to save some students from withdrawal after spending several years in the school.

He thanked his hardworking team, especially the Secretary General, Comrade Bashir Ahmed of political science, students and the management of the faculty for their invaluable support, advice and constructive criticisms throughout his administration as Caretaker Committee Chairman of National Association of Social Science Students (NASSS).