NANS blows hot, threatens to boycott, disrupt elections

The National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) on Wednesday threatened to boycott and disrupt the forthcoming general elections if the ongoing general strike by university staff unions is not called off immediately.

NANS said if the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the Federal government fail to reach an understanding and call off the ongoing strike, students would stop the elections from holding.

ASUU had since November 5, 2018 embarked on an indefinite strike action over government’s failure to honour the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the union and the federal government in 2017 and efforts by the federal government to negotiate with the union were deadlocked.

But on Wednesday, NANS Zone B (South-East and South-South), during a demonstration at the Delta State end of the Niger Bridge, barricaded the expressway to register their displeasure over the lingering strike and called on the federal government to negotiate with ASUU.

The protesting students, who were drawn from the 11 states of the South-South and South-East, were seen wielding placards of various inscriptions; “ASUU/ ASUP strike, Another way to increase crime”, ” No resumption, no election”, “We are tired of endless negotiations” “End strike now”, “NANS Zone B wants Her Students back on campus” Nigerian Students have bright future, do not truncate it with strike” “NANS Zone B says no to strike”, “Save education, end strike now”, ” Freedom cometh by struggle strike “, among others.

Addressing newsmen, the Zone B Coordinator of NANS, Comrade Okereke vowed that NANS would chase away voters on election day if the federal government failed to agree to terms with ASUU and end the strike.

“Nigerian students are tired of staying at home doing nothing while the election holds. We are calling on the federal government to negotiate with ASUU to end the strike or forget about the 2019 elections.

“Students constitute 46 per cent of the electoral strength in this country, if federal government fails to end the strike, we will see it as a deliberate attempt to rig the poll because the election cannot hold while we remain at home. Let them open our campuses or election will not hold.

“We are in support of ASUU demand for revitalization of our universities. Most of our tertiary institutions are in ruins, what we have in Nigeria is a glorified secondary school and our lecturers deserve better pay.”

Also speaking the National Deputy President of NANS, Comrade Pedro Obi Chibuzor warned that the only condition that would warrant students’ participation in the election would be to end the strike.

He expressed dissatisfaction with what he viewed as the failure of the APC 2015 campaign promise of prioritizing education.

The NANS Zone A coordinator, Comrade Umar Farouk Lawal, in his contribution said they were mobilizing their members nationwide for mass protests in Abuja before the election if the strike persists.

https://www.sunnewsonline.com/nans-blows-hot-threatens-to-boycott-disrupt-elections/

Stalled on the wall, Trump's path to victory is murky

President Donald Trump talks with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol Agent while touring U.S.-Mexico border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California, on March 13, 2018.Kevin Lamarque / Reuters file

Jan. 31, 2019, 11:05 PM GMT+1

By Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's $25 billion "big, beautiful" wall along the U.S.-Mexico border already has been downsized to a $5.7 billion request for about 150 miles of new barriers.

The fight has cost him 35 days of a government shutdown, several points in most surveys of his approval ratings and the pain of criticism from his right flank when he offered Democrats — to no avail — a three-year safe harbor for about 1 million immigrants in exchange for the smaller request.

Now, with a special House-Senate committee trying to hammer out a deal on border-security spending by Feb. 15 and Trump threatening to use executive powers to circumvent Congress if they don't, the question for proponents of the wall is just what would constitute a victory at this point — and whether it would come in the policy arena or on the political battlefield.

Trump and Pelosi at odds over wall funding in shutdown deal

FEB. 1, 201901:09

Right now, Republicans are playing small ball on the wall. But some immigration hard-liners say the political stakes could be huge.

If Democrats don't put up money for the wall, Trump will have a ready-made issue for his re-election campaign and to help Republican congressional candidates in 2020, said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to end illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration.

He's "set up the Democrats to look so weak on border security that they're going to get their clock cleaned," Stein said. "The Democrats are falling right into the bear trap."

Yet Trump focused his midterm barnstorming tour for Republican candidates on immigration — and the wall, specifically — and watched the House flip from GOP control into Democratic hands.

By offering up money for some border-security measures — but not a wall — Democratic leaders demonstrated that they are sensitive to the political peril of being perceived as uninterested in putting a check on illegal immigration, drug smuggling and human trafficking.

But Pelosi isn't flinching on the wall. "There's not going to be any wall money in the legislation," she told reporters Thursday.

That means the bar has become very low for a Trump policy win. Ironically, the definition of victory on the wall is amorphous.

"There is intense interest among the base in moving the ball forward here," said Ken Cuccinelli, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund and one of several interest-group leaders who met with Trump at the White House to discuss border security this month. "What it specifically looks like or what you call it isn't as important to ordinary Trump supporters."

But Cuccinelli, who thinks Trump should already be using executive powers to build the wall, said just upgrading existing barriers wouldn't amount to a win. "That won't do it," he said.https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/stalled-wall-trump-s-path-victory-murky-n965571