BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI & LAJA THOMAS

ABUJA – The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, yesterday called on the National Assembly to abrogate the decree which outlawed student unionism in the country, noting that it was anti-democratic and should be thrown away as military regimes which promulgated the decree was no more.

Its National President, Comrade Dauda Mohammed said, “we feel compelled to draw the attention of the National Assembly on the need to conduct a holistic review into the recommendations of Brig-Gen Emmanuel Abisoye-led panel which gave birth to the draconian decree 16 of 1986 by the then Military Government in Nigeria”.

NANS recalled that after May 1986 students’ crisis, the then military government established a committee under the chairmanship of Brig- Gen Emmanuel Abisoye (rtd) whose recommendations “were accepted by the government, and which gave the government more restrictive leverage over democratic struggles of the students’ movement in the country”.

“The recommendations of the panel and the decree which was aimed at checkmating the activities of Democratic students Union in Nigeria as at today runs contrary to all international conventions and the current Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which guarantees the right and freedom of association of every Nigerian citizen”, Mohammed said.