The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has proposed an annual levy of N200 for students and indicated that payment of the dues may become part of the requirements for mobilisation into the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, scheme.
NANS National President, Akinteye Babatunde, disclosed this while explaining plans by the students’ body to change the way it collects dues and improve its financial independence.
Babatunde, in posts on Facebook on Sunday and Monday, said NANS was considering working with the NYSC and other agencies connected with students to create a system through which students would pay the N200 directly to the association.
He had earlier suggested that students seeking mobilisation for the NYSC programme might be required to present evidence of payment of NANS dues.
He wrote, “We will be working with NYSC and one of the criteria to be mobilised for camp is NANS dues receipt.”
However, it was not immediately clear how such a proposal would work or whether the NYSC had agreed to make NANS dues an official requirement for mobilisation.
The NYSC has its own statutory conditions and procedures for mobilising eligible Nigerian graduates for the national service programme. Any new requirement connected with NANS dues would therefore need to be formally approved and incorporated into the mobilisation process before it could become an official condition.
Babatunde, while explaining the proposal in a video posted on Monday, said the N200 annual payment was not intended to put an additional financial burden on students.
According to him, the amount was deliberately kept low to ensure that students could contribute to the organisation while allowing NANS to have a stable source of income.
“This is not an avenue to stress the students further because the due is as low as 200 Naira per student, 200 Naira one year per student,” he said.
The NANS president said the money would be distributed among the different structures of the association, including its zonal and state structures as well as affiliated student bodies.
He explained that the proposed system was partly driven by difficulties faced by NANS in receiving funds from student union governments, SUGs, and university managements.
According to him, the association had traditionally depended to a large extent on capitation or dues collected through student union structures.
Babatunde said this arrangement had become unreliable, claiming that about 80 to 90 per cent of SUGs were no longer fully in control of the dues collected from students.
He alleged that some institutions released only a fraction of the funds collected to their student unions, thereby reducing the amount available to student organisations.
He said the situation had weakened NANS financially and affected its ability to intervene in matters affecting students.
“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,” he said.
Babatunde cited the University of Benin as an example of what he described as the problems facing student unions in accessing their funds.
According to him, the university management frustrated the efforts of the student union government to access its dues after the union opposed an increase in school fees.
He argued that controlling the finances of student organisations could weaken their ability to speak out when students faced problems.
“One of the ways to cripple the organisation is to make it lack funds, to be short of funds,” he said.
The NANS president said the organisation had continued to carry out activities despite its financial challenges.
He said its officials regularly visited campuses and intervened in complaints involving students, but added that such activities required funding.
Babatunde said NANS had received thousands of complaints from students, including cases that required urgent intervention.
“When I speak to you, I have about 3,000, 4,000 emails of student complaints… genuine complaints,” he said.
He also said the organisation had spent money responding to emergencies involving students, including cases of students who were kidnapped.
According to him, NANS had also incurred expenses following accidents involving buses operated by the organisation.
He questioned how the association could continue to meet such expenses without a reliable source of income.
“Where are those money coming from? Organisation that does not have dues,” he asked.
The proposed direct payment system is therefore being presented by the NANS leadership as a way of giving the association greater financial stability.
Babatunde also linked financial independence to the ability of NANS to challenge government agencies and other authorities when students’ interests are affected.
He argued that an organisation that depends on politicians, government officials or other powerful individuals for financial support could find it difficult to challenge those same people or agencies when problems arise.
“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?” he said.
The NANS president said the association wanted to establish a system under which the proposed N200 would go directly to the organisation instead of passing through university managements or SUGs.
“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,” he said.
He added that NANS would seek to amend its laws and develop proposals to provide legal and institutional support for the new payment system.
According to him, the changes may not produce major benefits for the current administration but would help future leaders of the organisation.
“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,” he said.
The proposed levy is likely to generate debate among students, particularly because of the suggestion that it could be linked to NYSC mobilisation.
The NYSC scheme is a compulsory national service programme for eligible Nigerian graduates, subject to the exemptions and conditions provided under the law. Mobilisation is handled through established procedures involving graduates, their institutions and the NYSC.
NANS is not the agency responsible for determining NYSC eligibility.
Therefore, the proposed N200 payment would not automatically become a condition for mobilisation simply because NANS has proposed it.
For such a requirement to take effect, there would need to be a formal arrangement between the relevant authorities and a clear process for students to know how and where the payment would be made.
The timing of the proposal is also significant because many Nigerian students and graduates already face several financial demands associated with education, graduation and national service.
Although N200 is a small amount compared with many education-related expenses, some students may still question the principle of making payment to a student association a condition linked to access to a government-run national service programme.
Babatunde, however, insisted that the proposal was not intended to place pressure on students.
He said the main objective was to make NANS financially independent and give it enough resources to represent students effectively.
“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,” he said.
The proposal will now require further discussions and possible changes to NANS rules before it can be implemented.
It also remains to be seen whether the NYSC and other relevant agencies will accept the proposed arrangement.