The National Association of Nigerian Students has hinted 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, disclosed this in a Facebook post on Sunday and Monday while discussing the organisation’s finances and plans to change how its dues are collected.
Babatunde had earlier said NANS would work with the NYSC, explaining that students might need proof of payment of the association’s dues to be mobilised for camp, and that one of the criteria for mobilisation would be a NANS dues receipt.
However, in a video posted on Monday, Babatunde explained that the association was considering a system that would allow it to collect its dues directly from students rather than relying on student union governments and institutional managements. He said the annual dues were only ₦200 per student.
According to him, the proposed system was not intended to place an additional financial burden on students but to ensure that NANS had the resources needed to operate independently and represent students effectively. He stressed that the plan was not meant to further stress students, given that the due amounted to only ₦200 per student annually.
Babatunde said the dues were meant to be distributed among the various structures of NANS, including the zonal level, state structures and affiliated student bodies. He explained that the organisation had struggled to receive its expected capitation from student union governments in recent years, and that it was therefore considering moving away from capitation towards a platform that would allow it to collect dues directly from students.
The NANS president alleged that about 80 to 90 per cent of student union governments were no longer in control of their dues, claiming that some institutions released only a fraction of the money collected to their student unions. He said this had weakened NANS financially and affected its ability to intervene in student-related issues.
Babatunde also cited the University of Benin as an example, alleging that the institution’s management frustrated the student union government’s efforts to access its dues after the union opposed an increase in school fees. He argued that one of the ways to cripple an organisation was to make it lack funds.
According to him, NANS had continued to carry out activities despite the financial challenges, including visiting campuses and intervening in cases involving students. He, however, argued that students could not expect the organisation to operate effectively without contributing financially to it, questioning how students could feel its impact if they were not willing to support it financially, since it was an organisation for all of them.
He also argued that NANS should be financially independent from government officials and other individuals whose support could potentially affect the organisation’s ability to challenge government agencies on behalf of students, questioning the logic of seeking support from politicians or government while still wanting to stand up against those same agencies.
The NANS president said 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, rather than through management or student union governments.
Babatunde said NANS would also amend its laws and develop proposals to provide the new system with the necessary institutional backing. He added that the changes might not fully benefit the current administration but would, in his view, strengthen the organisation for future administrations.
Babatunde further disclosed that the organisation had received thousands of complaints from students, arguing that NANS needed stronger financial capacity to respond to such cases, noting that he had thousands of emails containing genuine student complaints. He added that NANS had previously spent money responding to student emergencies, including a case involving kidnapped students, as well as expenses arising from accidents involving its buses, questioning where such funds were supposed to come from for an organisation without a reliable source of dues.
While Babatunde’s comments suggest that NANS is considering linking its dues payment to the NYSC mobilisation process, he did not provide details on how such an arrangement would be implemented or when it would take effect. The NYSC has its own statutory eligibility and mobilisation procedures, and any new requirement involving NANS dues would have to be formally established before it could become an official condition for mobilisation.
Babatunde maintained that the proposed direct payment system was aimed at making NANS financially independent and giving it greater capacity to advocate for Nigerian students, stressing that the goal was not to pressure students but to do what was necessary so that the organisation could stand on its own and function properly.
