The Association of Nigerians Students in Europe (ANSE) has vowed that its members across European countries will decide their fate in the forthcoming Nigeria’s general election by electing leaders that would see to their uninterrupted welfare.
ANSE president, Bashiru Saidu Muhammad, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Sunday.
According to him, “As Diaspora students with millions of Nigerian students studying in European countries, we have mobilised to return home and exercise our franchise. We have to determine our future by electing leaders who have the youths at their hearts.
“Our numerical strength can change the narrative and we have vowed to use it to achieve our future prospects. We cannot continue to elect leaders who abandon us to suffer abroad after sponsoring us; who make our parents suffer back home; who have made our country a beggar-nation and who have made Nigeria operate on faceless economy.
“On a worse note, our leaders have battered our country’s educational system with our Nigerian counterparts being made to languish on streets for eight months and the federal government failing in all fronts to honour its agreements with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to allow students return to school,” Muhammad stated.
He further stated that many state governors have had to leave their students without paying tuition and bursaries, a situation that had made many students languish in penury in countries they do not have anyone to rely on.
“Some state governors leave their international students studying in Europe without paying their tuition, accommodation and other fees, which result in these students suffering in these countries where they do not have anyone to depend on”, adding that “some of these students end up engaging in criminal activities to make ends meet.”
He, therefore, promised to continue to mobilise Nigerian students studying in Europe to ensure they return home to vote for leaders that would serve the country and citizens better in 2023.
