SEYI TINUBU AND NANS: The claims, counter-claims over attempted pocketing of students movement
THE CLAIMS AND DENIALS: *Oladoja-led faction defending Seyi and Tinubu's ministers *Oladoja team after walking out on AriseTV speaks *The counter-claims by Atiku-led NANS leadership SEYI TINUBU AND NANS: The claims and counter-claims over attempted pocketing of students movement *How Atiku Abubakar Isah leadership was elected *Election monitoring *Desperate politicians *Who attacked NANS president? *General view of Nigerians
By KEMI KASUMU and OUR REPORTERS
“Right in my presence he (Seyi Tinubu) called them (security operatives) like his own kids and they all gathered in his presence. I don’t know what he told them. Just after five minutes no security man could be found in the venue. He was right in there. After some seconds, he was making calls. We decided not to mind what they were trying to do. The manager of the hotel said they wanted to stop our inauguration because they had order from the above.”
The dust raised by recent issues involving the son of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of Nigeria, Seyi, over alleged attempt to take over the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) for 2027 politics may not have been settled as effort, particularly, of an electronic medium, Arise Television, to let the world see grouses of all the sides was frustrated by walk out from studio staged on Friday May 3, 2025 by the pro-Seyi Tinubu faction of the student movement.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF ISAH’S ALLEGATIONS
The DEFENDER reports that President of the NANS, Atiku Abubakar Isah, had in his remarks on Monday in the Asokoro, Abuja venue of his inauguration, a video shows, revealed series of allegations of N100 million offer by Seyi Tinubu for him to relinquish his election victory as president of the students’ movement in the country and publicly support the 2027 re-election of his father.
READ ALSO: Seyi Tinubu fingered in NANS inauguration venue attack
He, however, said he turned down the offer hence his abduction ostensibly orchestrated, allegedly, by the president’s son to the knowledge of Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Comrade Ayo Olawande Wisdom, the Minister of Defence, Muhammad Badaru Abubakar and who he called the MD of NTA (Nigerian Television Authority. He said he was stripped naked by his abductors and that Seyi Tinubu threatened to post his nude photos online and nothing would happen and also threatened to kill him and tell the Inspector General of Police to either cover up his murder or be sacked.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF ISAH’S ALLEGATIONS
Seyi, himself, via X denied having any connection with or ever seeing the said Atiku Abubakar Isah talk less that he would make any offer to him of N100 million. He then threatened a legal action saying “Enough is enough” that those stories by Atiku were convicted to blackmail him.
The denial elicited the need for open media investigation to come up and former Senate President of the NANS, Henry Okunomo, told a Channels Television crew on set that he saw the President’s son, Seyi Tinubu, drive into the venue of the event and made some instructions to coerce manager of the hotel, whose hall was being used in Asokoro, to stop the inauguration from holding.
He listed some qualifications that could connect anyone with participation in electoral activities of the students’ movement mainly being a former official of NANS and current a student of any high institution and questioned what aspect of the requirements for participation Seyi Tinubu falls for him to want to interfere in how the movement choose its leaders.
Okunomo, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday April 30, 2025, said Seyi’s involvement has made NANS “porous” and diverted its focus from advocating for students welfare.
“With the involvement of the president’s son in the organisation, he has done everything possible to make the association porous,” Okunomo said.
According to him, “I am afraid we might not become anything useful in the organisation except for a few who have the association at heart.”
He questioned the legitimacy of Seyi’s role in the students body, stating that only students actively studying in Nigerian institutions and those who had served in the association are recognised as stakeholders.
“What is his interest in NANS? He wasn’t a stakeholder, he didn’t serve. The only thing that qualifies you is if you have served and are a student in Nigeria. If you don’t meet these criteria, you can’t call yourself a stakeholder,” he added.
Okunomo further alleged that Seyi Tinubu is using his influence to intimidate individuals within NANS, thereby weakening the organisation’s independence and focus.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH DETAILS OF OKUNOMO’S CHANNELSTV INTERVIEW
The claims and denials
Reacting to the revelations, zonal coordinators of the National Association of Nigerian Students held a press conference in Abuja on Friday, saying they would not allow anyone or group to tarnish the image of the organisation for political patronage or create tension within the students movement.
The forum of zonal coordinators from the six geo-political zones called on the political class to desist from using the students association as a political tool to drive their selfish interest.
What, however, became appalling in the statement of the coordinators was their taking sides with the person of Seyi Tinubu, who has been grandly accused to be responsible for the thuggery disruptions and attacks on the inauguration of Atiku Abubakar Isah as the President of the NANS amidst ongoing speech presentation by former Governor of Kano State, Minister and Senator of the Federal Republic, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau.
The forum also dissociated itself from what it described as recent attempt to polarise the organization by Atiku Abubakar Isah, who is the president that is presently embattled because he allegedly refuse to accept the offer of N100 million from Seyi Tinubu to publicly say positive things about his father, the president.
The six zonal NANS coordinators, who shielded Seyi Tinubu and other persons named in the allegations that the world is already viewing from videos, alleged that Isah was sponsored by opposition political parties to create faction in the students movement although failed to explain their own hobnobbing with ruling party as a students group that they claimed to be independent, apolitical and has integrity.
In their position, the only elected President of NANS is Okusola Oladoja, who, according to them, was inaugurated on April 30, 2025.
In a press conference addressed by Daniel Egga, Coordinator of NANS in Zone A (North Central), they said, “NANS is a non-political students movement and as the leaders of the structures representing the six geo-political zones in Nigeria, we have the responsibility to protect the integrity and advocate for the welfare of our students.
“For the record, the entire students union representatives converged in Abuja as senators representing their respective institutions to participate in the 2025 NANS elective Congress on the 27th of February.
“It is worthy of note that over 14 aspirants contested for the office of the president and the so called Atiku Abubakar was never part of them. He neither obtained the nomination form nor attended the screening exercise.
“At the end of the screening contest, a well published contest too, February 28 at the old parade ground, Comrade Okusola Oladoja, a master’s student from the University of Jos, emerged in an overwhelming vote and was immediately embraced abd congratulated by other co-aspirants.
Faction defending Seyi and Tinubu’s ministers
“We also want to state that there is no truth in the blackmail against the person of Mr. Seyi Tinubu, Comrade Ayo Olawande Wisdom, the Honourable Minister of Sports and Youths Development, and His Excellency Alhaji Muhammad Badaru , Honourable Minister of Defence. These men have done nothing than to support NANS programmes and help amplify our demands with regards to students welfare within the government circle, to accelerate favourable responses.
“They have been of immense help in NELFund establishment, CNG buses delivery and have intervened on many occasions to get our demands addressed before it escalates.
“Finally, we want to warn our political class and detractors to desist from … on the students movement for survival but that they should look inward and reflect on the reasons…. With this, they could get more redemption. We would not tolerate any further attempt to bulkanise our organisation, NANS,” said the pro-government NANS zonal coordinators.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH CLAIMS AND COUNTER-CLAIMS BY BOTH SIDES
The counter-claims by Atiku-led NANS leadership
After the Oladoja-led faction had walked out on Arise Television programme arranged to enable fair hearing of both sides, Umar Abdullahi, Secretary General of the Atiku Abubakar Isah-led NANS was asked to respond to the press conference address of the six geo-political zonal coordinators and he said there was no atom of truth in what the Oladoja-led faction said in their press conference address by Daniel Egga.
Oladoja speaks
It must be noted here that Oladoja-led faction, although walked out on Arise Television interview, Arise Television aired a press conference he later addresses at the weekend, where he only corroborated the position of the six geo-political zones coordinators but emphatically spoke for and defended Seyi Tinubu allegations, saying he “categorically states that Seyi Tinubu has ever met Atiku Abubakar Isah and accusations are all political, motivated attempt to malign his character. Seyi Tinubu is a private citizen with a well documented history of peaceful and constructive engagement with Nigerian youths and students.”
But in the response of the NANS chief scribe, Umar Abdullahi, he said, “It is commonly said that he who pays the viper dictates the tune. I am not surprised seeing the coordinator, of course he is the coordinator of our zone in the North Central, speak the way he spoke. Because they have given him a bus and, of course, part of the threats they may use against him is, “If you go against us we are going to retrieve the bus.”
“Most of those buses are provided for students. Go all over the places in Nigerian university campuses, you will not see any bus that is being allocated to ease students suffering transport. They shared them among themselves and the SA on Students Engagement and the Minuster, they shared the remaining ones for themselves.
“So, if after taking bus he decided to come on media to say this to dissociate himself with a legitimate president because they have been bribed, I’m not surprised. But it would interest you to know that this NANS has a chain of history. The SA on Students Engagement, currently, handed over to Umar Usman Barambo,, he is still alive. Umar Usman Barambo handed over the leadership to Pedro Chibozor Obi, who handed over the mantle of leadership to my president, Atiku Abubakar at the occasion where those thugs I me here came to attack myself and the president.”
Attention of the NANS secretary general was, however, called to “let us mind our language, you can’t call anyone thug in the news. And to our viewers, we have promised to speak to both sides of the divide tonight (Friday). How very, the president of NANS as recognized by one faction, Mr. Oladoja, has just walked out of this interview, hoping to get him another date to get his own side of the story,” the female anchor of the Arise Television programme said.
On whether NANS Secretary General Umar Abdullahi was saying that those six zonal coordinators took bribe and whether to was possible, he gave a response.
“Now the situation we have found ourselves in this country, an average human being when offer worth N10 million, N20 million is given, you must have a rethink on it. My president alone was invited to Lagos, I was the one that encouraged him to go to Lagos, was given an offer of N100 million to relinquish his legitimate position fir somebody because of political interest,” Abdullahi explained.
Asked to be sure Atiku Abubakar Isah was invited to Lagos to relinquish his position, the NANS secretary general said, “Yes, for N200 million.”
By who? He was again asked and he said, “Well, I think you would hear that from him probably, because I was not with him in Lagos but he told me and I was aware of his journey. They booked his ticket. Precisely Oladoja, himself, booked his his ticket after arranging for a meeting with us here in Abuja where he offered to give my president N5 million and my president laughed and asked, “What will you give me N5 million for? You didn’t win election you are offering me money. I don’t have business with you. You invited me that you wanted to see me, that was why I availed myself.”
“The meeting ended here until they went to arrange another meeting and invited him to Lagos. He went and that they discussed was not anything reasonable that will favour the students and he decided to come back. That is the one I know,” he said.
How Atiku Abubakar Isah leadership was elected
Umar Abdullahi, who declined the question about location of hospital where Atiku Abubakar Isah was admitted after the attacks allegedly sponsored by Seyi Tinubu, however showed interest in giving full details of how and where he and his NANS new executives were elected.
“Very interesting. First of all, line I heard the coordinator on screen that he did not recognize whether Atiku was a NANS presidential contestant, on the screening list of aspirants, Atiku Abubakar is number 2 who was cleared and successful in the contest and he contested on the 27th to 28th. Our election was in broad daylight not at night, in the old parade ground where every SUG president numbering about 215 was present.”
According to him, had he been given information ahead of time and not as impromptu as it was for him to come on the television, he would have brought what he called “the chronological list of the SUG presidents in attendance and their institutions.”
Election monitoring
On who monitored the election he said, “Security operatives were all there. The DSS, Nigerian Police and even these persons, who came claiming positions, cane there (the election) with guns and marchers just like they did in the inauguration. Yes, at the election. And they were apprehended by Nigerian police.
“But, unfortunately, we are in a country where things don’t work. People, because of their positions, can just do what they want and get away with it. So, the issue was swept under the carpet and we decided to move ahead,” he said.
Told that these were serious allegations against the Nigerian security operatives particularly the police, the NANS chief scribe confidently reacted, “Yes,” that they made arrest and let the arrested culprits go.
Desperate politicians
On how did the country get to this point, he said, “When people are politically desperate, especially in contemporary African politics, you should expect anything. We have been invited severally to come and key into what is not right to collect money but we have posterity, which will judge. You have a future to protect. Tomorrow your children or your grandchildren will be making reference to what you do today. This is what we are trying to avoid.”
Who attacked NANS president?
On what happened and who attacked Atiku Abubakar Isah, Umar Abdullahi explained, “What happened I would explain to you now here in details, because, if I have heard this from somebody else I would have had a doubting mind. We had our inauguration in Asokoro. That very morning we were supposed to have the inauguration, the son of the president, Seyi Tinubu cane to the hotel. We had already informed all the security agencies about our inauguration and they had all stationed there..
“Right in my presence he (Seyi Tinubu) called them (security operatives) like his own kids and they all gathered in his presence. I don’t know what he told them. Just after five minutes no security man could be found in the venue. He was right in there. After some seconds, he was making calls. We decided not to mind what they were trying to do. The manager of the hotel said they wanted to stop our inauguration because they had order from the above.
“We insisted that we must have our inauguration there because our dignitaries were already on ground,” he explained.
React to the involvement of the Afenifere insinuating that the inauguration was sponsored by opposition to work against Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government as, according to them they saw the names of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Rotimi Amaechi, the NANS secretary general, Umar Abdullahi, watched it down saying even President Bola Tinubu, they were talking about, as grand patron of the students movement was number one on the list of dignitaries invited.
He added that the president’s daughter, the Iyaloja General, Folasade Ojo, was invited. He said the former Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau, who was in his feet on the podium delivering his address when the allegedly Seyi Tinubu-led attacks took place, is a strong member of the Al Progressives Congress (APC).
General views of Nigerians
The general view of Nigerians is that the country is currently drifting towards a system ruled by tyranny where, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, son the president is getting involved in governance and the state leader himself watches as institutions of democracy are pocketed such that those who are defecting to the ruling party are said to be doing so not because they love him or that his government is doing well but because they are so desperate to remain in office and only by joining his party that can be assured.
