By Emman Ovuakporie & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA – SPEAKER of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara Monday painted a gloomy picture of the political terrain of the country, saying that Nigeria had been under the stranglehold of men and women of a generation that had overreached itself.

Yakubu-Dogara

The Speaker who stated this in Abuja during an interactive session with leaders of students of Nigerian Universities organised by the National Institute of Legislative Studies, NILS, enjoined the students and Nigerian youth not to despair or feel helpless, despondent or marginalised.

He told the students that in their hands lied the promise of a great nation that would emerge from the ashes of the current travails, to create a Nigeria that everybody would be proud of.

This is just as the Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has assured that the 8th National Assembly especially the House would ensure the passage of Students Loan Bill to access Higher Education to give every student equal right to complete their education without financial hindrances.

He said that education was a right and not privilege and that government should bring it to everybody in the country, adding that the essence of establishing education bank was to enable indigent students have access to the loan with interest free that would only be paid back after the student had graduated and started work.

Meantime, Chairman, Nigerian Young Parliamentarian Forum and African representatives on the Board of Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, Rep Nnanna Igbokwe representing Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Mbaise Federal Constituency of Imo State, said the essence of the interactive forum with students was to enhance better participation of young people on democratic process for them to understand the workings of parliament.

The Speaker in his address told the students that, “This country belongs to you but it’s under the stranglehold of men and women of a generation that have overreached itself.

“The truth is that nothing will be ceded or conceded to your generation without a fight. In this endeavour, your voices mean nothing if you don’t have the votes. Therefore, all students in Nigeria must not only register to vote and cast their votes during elections, they must also ensure that their votes, count.

“There is no other better way by which you will earn respect for yourselves and ensure that the gifts you have taken to the university to polish ultimately benefit your generation.”

Dogara further said that he held the strong view that the culture of peaceful protest, demonstrations and general activism was not only necessary in a democratic state but was in fact a constitutional right.

According to him, “This ensures accountability of government to the people. Resistance to tyranny, crusade for justice and good governance require courage, patriotism and ideological purity.

“It was Martin Luther King, Jnr, who said that: “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed”. Indeed, ‘the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny’, to paraphrase Prof Wole Soyinka.

“The culture of protest that I endorse must be uncompromisingly peaceful and non-violent. It must be based on selflessness and not aided by ambition or corruption. It must be for the right reasons and procured only by the purest of motives.