He also cautioned them to be to be wary of politicians who are skilled in making use of students as agents for social disorder and political manipulation.
The Special Adviser gave the advice, when the National President of the Association of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Yinka Gbadebo and some of his executives paid him a courtesy visit in his office, in Alausa, Ikeja.
He encouraged them to understand that whatever crisis is currently being experienced in the country; it is a phase that will come and go, but all hands must be put on deck to ensure that the democratic experience is nurtured and protected.
Mr. Raji said that the ‘pulling’ and ‘pushing’ presently going on in the country should not be seen as an aberration but rather a way of striking equilibrium and deepening our democratic processes.
“The successive military administration brought a lot of retrogression to the development of this country thereby making the practice of democracy in the country much difficult,” he said, adding that political crises had also been experienced in advanced democracies.
He stated that though the high level of unemployment had been identified as a factor that made students and jobless youths readily available for political use, but urged the youth to look beyond the pursuit of white-collar jobs and creatively follow their areas of interest and be passionate and innovative about them.
Speaking on the appointment of the new Peoples Democratic Party’s Chairman, the Special Adviser criticized the appointment and said that the decision was unhealthy to the society and negates international best practices. According to him, the appointment of Adamu Mu’azu as the new PDP Chairman further authenticates the position of those who have declared that the body language of President Goodluck Jonathan encourages corruption.
He added that the State Government did not rely on the tuition fee of LASU students to fund the institution as the total money realized from the tuition fee cannot foot the bills of the institution’s staff for three consecutive months let alone put up any infrastructure in the school.
Mr. Raji said that with the intellectual and infrastructures' development going on in the institution which had made it possible to be fully accredited; LASU is posed to be a citadel of learning that will thrive on quality for everyone irrespective of their social class.
The Special Adviser said that since the Students’ Union played very critical role in the emergence of democracy in the country, the struggle of those heroes past should be sustained, and NANS should continue to be vocal in condemning acts that threatened to derail the interest of the society.
The NANS President and his team were on a courtesy visit to the Special Adviser and sought his views on the state of the political affairs in the country, the tuition fee of Lagos State University and the proposed national student summit of NANS.
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