By Ikeugonna Eleke
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has commended President Bola Tinubu for recently signing the Student Loan Bill into law.
The newly elected NANS chairman of Joint Campus Council (JCC) in Anambra State, Mr. Matthew Okoye Okpala, stated this in a press conference to announce his recent emergence.
Okpala, a student of the Department of Political Science, Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, during the conference, called for the strengthening of security around campuses across the country to forestall stories of kidnapping by terrorists, and killings by cultists.
He said: ‘The student community wants to convey our gratitude to our father and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for the signing of the Students’ Loan Bill to law.
‘This will help in making sure that Nigerian students complete their studies without hitches and in record time.’
Okpala pleaded with President Tinubu to also look into the issue of students grant and consider Nigerian students worthy of receiving grants.
Speaking on insecurity around campuses in Nigeria, the Anambra JCC Chairman urged President Tinubu to ensure that tertiary institutions received adequate protection.
There have been incidences of mass abduction of students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. In Anambra State, rampaging cultists have cut short the lives of students in Nnamdi Azikiwe University and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University.
To forestall such occurrences, Okpala said: ‘We want to call the attention of Mr. President of Nigeria, to the insecurity in our campuses.
‘He should please look into it, as protection of the life and property of Nigerians should be a major responsibility on his table.’
Okpala said his council would work with Students Union Governments in all the tertiary institutions in Anambra State to ensure that tales of incessant increment in tuition fees would be a thing of the past. He pledged support for what he called Prof Chukwuma Soludo’s Revolutionary Government in Anambra State.
Okpala won the recent election after securing four out of seven votes cast by senate representatives of the seven participating institutions in the state.
