The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has disclosed that payment of its proposed annual ₦200 dues may become a requirement for students seeking mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
The NANS National President, Akinteye Babatunde, stated this in a Facebook post on Sunday and Monday while discussing the organisation’s finances and intentions to reform how its dues are collected.
Babatunde had earlier claimed NANS will liaise with the NYSC, adding that students could need confirmation of payment of the association’s dues to be mobilised for camp.
He wrote, “We will be working with NYSC, and one of the criteria to be mobilised for camp is NANS dues receipt.”
However, in a video posted on Monday, Babatunde indicated that the association was looking into a method that would allow it to collect dues directly from students rather than relying on student union governments and institutional administrations.
He stated that the annual dues were only ₦200 per pupil.
According to him, the suggested method was not designed to impose new financial burdens on students, but rather to ensure that NANS had the resources it required to operate freely and successfully represent students.
He said, “This is not an avenue to stress the students further because the due is as low as 200 Naira per student in a year, 200 Naira one year per student.”
According to Babatunde, NANS dues are distributed among various structures, including zonal, state, and affiliated student bodies.
However, the organisation has not received the expected capitation from student union governments in recent years.
He said, “We are considering moving from getting the due to capitation to get it to have a platform where we can get it directly from students.”
The NANS president claimed that 80 to 90 percent of student union governments no longer had control over their dues, and that some colleges simply released a portion of the money collected to their student unions.
He claimed that this had crippled NANS financially and limited its ability to act in student-related matters.
Babatunde also used the University of Benin as an example, claiming that the institution’s management thwarted the student union government’s efforts to collect dues when the union objected to an increase in tuition.
He said, “One of the ways to cripple the organisation is to make it lack funds, to be short of funds.”
Despite the budgetary problems, he stated that NANS continued to do operations such as visiting universities and intervening in student-related matters.
He contended, however, that students could not expect the organisation to function properly unless they contributed financially to it.
Babatunde said, “How can you feel the impact correctly if you are not putting your money where your mouth is? This is an organisation for all of us.”
He also contended that NANS should be financially independent of government officials and others whose support could jeopardize the organization’s ability to oppose government authorities on behalf of students.
He said, “How do you want people to run to politicians or government to seek their support and when they have issues with the agencies, they still want to stand and fight those agencies?”
The NANS president mentioned that the organisation was therefore looking at working with agencies connected to students to develop a system through which the ₦200 dues could be paid directly to NANS.
He said, “We are going towards [agencies] to cooperate with to get this due directly to the organisation, no more to the management, no more to the SUGs, but directly to the organisation.”
Babatunde stated that NANS would alter its legislation and make recommendations to provide the new system with the required institutional support.
He noted that while the adjustments may not benefit the present government, he believes they would improve the organisation for future administrations.
He said, “We are going to amend our laws, we are going to have different proposals and see how we will start getting our due directly to the organisation.”
Babatunde also revealed that the organisation had received thousands of complaints from students, arguing that NANS needed stronger financial capacity to respond to such cases.
He said, “When I speak to you, I have about 3,000, 4,000 emails of student complaints… genuine complaints.”
He went on to say that NANS had previously spent money responding to student emergencies, including the case of kidnaped students, as well as on bus accidents.
He said, “Where is that money coming from? Organisation that does not have dues.”
While Babatunde’s comments indicate that NANS is considering connecting its dues payment to the NYSC mobilization process, he did not elaborate on how such an agreement would be executed or when it would take effect.
The NYSC has its own statutory eligibility and mobilization procedures, and any new requirement involving NANS dues must be formalized before it can become an official condition for mobilization.
Babatunde insisted that the proposed direct payment scheme would make NANS financially independent and give it more power to advocate for Nigerian students.
He said, “This is not to pressure the student, it is just about doing the right thing that is necessary, so that the other organisation can also be independent, so that the organisation can also stand on its own and do things properly.”
