EXCLUSIVE: Muslim students back NANS nationwide protest against school closures for Ramadan
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has said its members who are Muslim are in support of its proposed nationwide protest against the four northern states that closed down all schools to enable students to observe the Ramadan fasting period.
The states which gave the directive include Bauchi, Katsina, Kano, and Kebbi. In those states, one can find a sizeable amount of non-muslims and private schools who now have their activities disrupted by the directive.
Reacting, NANS issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the governors of the states to rescind their decision and reopen all schools while Ramadan continues.
Fielding questions from MyNigeria on what NANS members who are Muslims feel about the coming protest, the Public Relations Officer, Samson Ajasa, said they are in support of it.
“They are in support. I’m sure anybody with a single degree will support this agitation. It is to show our dispersion to those policies,” he said.
Ajasa further stated that education is a right, not a privilege, and the Constitution “has given all Nigerians the same privilege to have freedom of association and freedom of religion, and education cannot be subjected to discrimination.”
He stated that Christians cannot kill a whole month for Christmas, adding that governors in the Christian-dominated southern part of Nigeria cannot do such.
“It’s a side time we let the northern governors in those states know that there are some policies they cannot naturally decided by themselves. They cannot take education to their own pocket and decide to close schools. It’s not going to work. It’s not going to be possible,” he said.
Ajasa stated that NANS would have limited the proposed protest to the four states alone but decided to make it nationwide so as to send a message to other governors who might also be nursing a similar idea.
He further stated, “We want to make the awareness to be well-known and for other governors to know that you cannot just come on board and be making anyhow policies. I read in the news that the Vice President, who also comes from the north, was saying that out of the 22 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, we have about 20 million of them that are from the north. If we have such, should we still be closing schools because of Ramadan?”
The NANS PRO advised the governors to look for other ways to provide palliative measures to ameliorate the weight of the fasting on students instead of shutting down schools.
