Adedokun Waliyu 
Comrade Umar Faruq has been declared the winner of the 2022 national presidential election of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in Abuja.
Faruq takes over from the outgoing NANS President, Comrade Sunday Asefon who was elected in 2020.
Faruq who is a 300 Level Library Science student of Bayero University Kano (BUK), defeated his closest opponent, Comrade Usman Barambu, scoring 202 votes out of the 310 total votes cast in the election.
More than 300 delegates, made up of student leaders across tertiary institutions in the country converged on Abuja during the weekend to elect new leaders who will steer the affairs of NANS for a period of one year.
The newly elected NANS president, Faruq, who addressed newsmen shortly after he was declared winner of the election in Abuja, vowed to swing into action immediately to see to resolution of the protracted strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
He expressed disgust over the lingering strike action by the lecturers, saying he would immediately meet with the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, the leadership of ASUU and other stakeholders on the need for the parties to return to the negotiation table with the view to resolving the impasse for students to return to their campuses.
He said: “I want to assure Nigerian students that in no distant time, I will work to make sure that the leadership of ASUU will meet with the federal government to make sure that Nigerian students go back to campus.
“NANS has a new president now and we will discuss the Minister of Education, with the leadership of ASUU, so that we can come to a roundtable to make sure they call off this long strike.
“We will make sure we protect our students at all levels because that is the first priority of my leadership,” he said.
He dismissed reports of any faction in NANS, saying NANS remained one and that, under his leadership, the welfare and issues affecting students nationwide would be taken seriously.
NANS convention chairman, Comrade Ogo Lincoln Otekevwue, said the election that saw the emergence of Umar Faruq as the new NANS president was peaceful, free and fair.
He called on Nigerian students across the country to give their maximum support to the new NANS leadership for him to succeed.
