Leadership is a position many will do anything to acquire but very few have lived up to expectation when giving the opportunity to lead. Felix Ijegalu the President of the National Association of University Students (NAUS) has proven that he has the gift and qualities of a true leader. In an exclusive interview with Anaedoonline.ng, the number one citizen of Nigeria University Student both within and outside country, who hails from Udi in Enugu State was also the former Student Union Government (SUG) President of Anambra state university (ANSU) now Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), speaks on the challenges faced by Nigeria students, reasons why most youths are losing interest in education and the lessons, experienced and achievement he had as a unionist.
Family background and philosophy on university education
Speaking on his family background and childhood life, the out-spoken president said: ”I grew up in Kaduna state in a Christian family of nine (five boys and four girls) and due to the occasion riots in the north, we left. I had a wonderful father and loving and strong mother full of good morals and a disciplinarian – a good cook.”
He went on to study in Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU). This is where he formed his philosophy on education. On this, he said, “My advice for university students is for them to realize that education is not job training but empowerment, where you are thought to empower your mind, to explore and innovate new things and be creative and most importantly solve human problems and this, will solve the question of if education is a scam or not because you already know it is not.’
Ijegalu regretted stating that, “We don’t have leadership causes, and institutions are expected to produce good presidents and governors. Nobody trains you to be a leader. I encourage students to join unionism because that’s another school on its own. Government and schools should encourage unionism because it is a training ground.
On the aspect of many youths losing interest in education due to several reasons like ASUU strike, and the quest to acquire quick wealth, the NAUS President said, “The world is revolving and the Nigeria education system has refused to change. Our curriculum planners are not shipping it to revolve around the trends and happenings in the world.
“Education is a face and with each face, one should be able to have what he or she can contribute to society. It is sad that we have reduced education to job training. Education is empowerment. The goal is to get good grades and good jobs. When people get good grades and they don’t get jobs, they become frustrated. Many have joined cybercriminals just because society has lied to them and expectations are high. When expectations are high, it leads to frustration.”
Ijegalu suggested that the curriculum should be worked upon. We should begin to teach in our secondary and tertiary institutions practical and pragmatic knowledge that can impact society. For these motions to change, our curriculum needs to be improved.
Experience As The President Of NAUS
My stay in office as the President of NAUS has been challenging and tough. This is because my regime existed in a time when the whole world was kicked out of budget. Nobody foresaw the coronavirus pandemic coming. So, it changed the plan of virtually every organization including NAUS. We had campaign promises, we had campaign goals and targets because the primary target of NAUS is to protect the interest and safeguard the integrity of the association and to also protect the right and welfare of Nigeria Universities.
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That was where our campaign was resting. We wanted to organize programs, pay visits and create opportunities for students to be able to explore, but unfortunately, the pandemic came with its own plans and changed a lot of things and we could not meet what we planned. But notwithstanding these unforeseen problems, we had to keep the ball rolling so we can at least achieve something.
My greatest problem in office was funding. Basically, NAUS gets its funding from donations of well-meaning individuals and from student unions of different universities. But because of Covid-19, funding was stagnated because universities who pay our dues were actually on break due to the global pandemic and businesses were suffocating during the period. For these reasons, we had no funding.
What Motivated the several protests by NAUS
“The tenets of NAUS propelled the protests. The first protest was against the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) at Abuja, where about 280 billion naira that was released for the tertiary institution were not properly accounted for. Students were still paying high fees so we had to challenge the universities to stop hiking the fees in schools. They complained that they were poorly funded and needed other means to raise fees. The questions of were the fund released by TETFund for tertiary institutions were universities were to get 800 million each started coming up.
Felix Ijegalu leading the protest Over Long Closure Of Schools
“If a university receives such an amount, it should be enough. but surprisedly, universities said they were given no money; some said it was a scam, so NAUS had to engage TETFund to know why they said they gave out funds while they didn’t. They couldn’t give us a satisfactory reply, that was what propelled the protest.
“On pressing on, TETFund said the money that was supposed to be given to institutions is still with the Ministry of Finance and that the minister has not released the money. This was contradictory because the TETFund secretary had said that the money had been released.
“The second protest happened in the Ministry of Education in Abuja where we charged the Federal Ministry of Education to re-open schools over the nation. The Federal Government shut down institutions due to the coronavirus pandemic in other to curb the spread of the virus.
“Other countries have made ways to fight the virus instead of just sitting down and looking at the virus and hoping it goes away. The FG stated that the West African Examination Council (WEAC) examination will not hold in Nigeria while it will be taken in other countries in West Africa.
Felix Ijegalu the President of the National Association of University Students leading the protest Over Long Closure Of Schools
“NAUS kicked against it because we feel that decision will destabilize the academic calendar and it is going to be a problem to various students in the country which will keep them behind their contemporaries in West Africa. NAUS had to engage the federal government to tell them that they should find means for WAEC to be written.
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“NAUS found it very uncomfortable to see that markets were open, worship centers were open, transportation businesses were ongoing, etc. We felt the logic was faulty and that was the motivation for us to see that schools were open and then we charged and our voice was heard and today, our schools are open.
“Another protest was a follow-up. which was ‘Nigerians are not animals, stop maltreating Nigerians in Bangladesh. A lot of Nigerian students were suffering and are been held in captivity and locked up in prisons for no just cause. They have no redress and nobody speaking for them.
“People have been complaining especially in Asia, soo NAUS felt it was bad and called on the government to speak for them. NAUS had to protest at the Bangladesh high commission and at the ministry of foreign affairs and also at the Nigeria indisporal commission and to the glory of God, a lot of Nigerians/Africans who had no case were released during that period. These are the motivation for us to protest because it is our duty (NAUS) to speak for the Nigerian students studying within and outside the country.
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”It is very funny that when you began to fight for the Nigerian students in abroad, you see people who are also Nigerians castigating what you do. sometimes you see people in the arm forces being used by the government to subdue what we do. it is laughable.
On how cooperative the government have been with NAUS
The number one student of Nigerian University students said, “We have not really gotten the full cooperation we need, but unlike other protesters, we have never been brutalized by any security agency. We have only being threatened. Infact, We have been guided by the police force in most of our protests.”
On the increase of killings by cultist especially in Anambra state
”There are many dimensions to cultism. A cultist is someone suffering from abnormal tendencies. It is not a thing of force but of enlightenment. There a lot of people who were cultist but renounced and are in government. for the fact that NAUS is not the police or any security force that arrest, what we do is sensitazation programmes through telling people that cultism is not the way forward.
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“A lot of people aspire to join cultism because they feel it gives them security, and safeguard them from external forces like being bullied or attacked but we give them assurance and helped them when they are troubled and call out the culprits and bring the security forces to arrest them. We have always told students that they can be on campus without being intimidated and we have not failed to tell them the consequences of becoming a cultist.”
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