The embattled President of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Mr. Danielson Bamidele Akpan has been impeached by the Senate Arm of the Association at an emergency Senate meeting which held on Tuesday, bringing an end to his ‘Mugabecious’(two-and-a-half-year) reign. CAMPUS GIST reports that Akpan was impeached at the meeting which had in attendance current senators (i.e Students' Union presidents), past and serving NANS leaders and stakeholders. Our NANS correspondent reports that the meeting held on the popular videoconferencing App, Zoom due to the COVID-19 protocols. Akpan was impeached over alleged incompetence, misappropriation of fund, corruption, elongation of one- year tenure, disregard for NANS Charter of Demand and insensitivity to the plight of Nigerian Students, amongst others. CAMPUS GIST gathered that his Vice President (National Affairs), Mr. Chidi Ilogebe was immediately announced as Acting National President pending the conduct of fresh elections. Although Ilogebe is Special Assistant (SA) on Students’ Affairs to the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, against the NANS Charter Demand which forbids excos from holding political positions. Bamidele has been asked to return ALL NANS property and funds in his possession or be forcefully and fully recovered, while the National Convention to elect new officers have been fixed for November 12th - November 15th 2020 in Abuja. Meanwhile, the impeached NANS president, who recently got married using his Office, has been enmeshed in over $ 200,000 fraud scandal. He has been accused of embezzling the fund said to have been released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) as palliative to Nigerian students. Akpan was said to have negotiated the amount with the nation's oil body as a way of shutting the mouth of students' from protesting or kicking against the recent hike in pump price. Although he has denied the allegation, but many damning evidence and eyewitnesses have come out to collaborate the report, including his consultant who claim to have strike the deal with the NNPC for a percentage. Also, a former aspirant for the position of NANS president, Amb. SA Lukman, has petitioned the erstwhile president Akpan before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the $200k largesse.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has challenged the Federal Government to tell Nigerians why it prefers to spend money on enrolling workers on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, when the union’s University Transparency and Accountability System, UTAS, can be used for the same purpose free of charge. The National President of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, threw the challenge on Sunday in a chat with Vanguard. He wondered why the government would insist on wasting scarce public resources on an investment that would in the end fail to meet expectations. “We are close to actualising UTAS’ integrity process. We wonder why the government is insisting on IPPIS that cannot meet expectations in terms of performance. Does it make sense for the government to waste money on IPPIS? “For everyone listed on the IPPIS platform, they pay some money to those who brought the platform. But for UTAS, they don’t need to pay a dime. They should tell Nigerians why despite the economic challenges in the country, they are insisting on something that would take money from the national purse when some people have a better alternative that costs nothing. Definitely, something must be wrong somewhere,” he said. On the claim by the government that most university lecturers have been enrolled in IPPIS, Ogunyemi said it was untrue. “From our investigations, not up to one quarters of our members are on the platform. The few ones on the platform are of three categories. The first being those close to retirement or those retiring who felt being enrolled would help secure their entitlements. “The second category is the newly-recruited staff who also felt they wanted to secure their jobs and those who were cajoled into enrolling. The government only listed names of our members on the platform without the biometric being done by the listed lecturers and when the biometric is not done, the listing amounts to nothing. “If they are still boasting that they have our members on the IPPIS, what are they sending teams to universities to list members on the IPPIS,” he stated. On last week’s meeting, ASUU had with the government delegation, Ogunyemi said nothing was really achieved because matters for discussion were just opened before the meeting ended. He added that another meeting would take place during the week but could not confirm the date yet. ASUU has been on strike since late March this year over issues such as the revitalisation of the university system, setting up of Visitation Panels to universities, implementation of an earlier agreement reached with the government among others before the IPPIS issue cropped up