Xenophobia: NANS factions clash over 'free ticket' to South Africa | EduCeleb
Confidence Evwodere
4th September 2019
Two factions of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Wednesday clashed over plans by the South African High Commission to sponsor some of them to the country in the heat the xenophobic attacks.
A group Nigerian youth led by the President of National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Bello Shagari,  in company of a NANS factional leadership of Gideon Obande and others were at the meeting.
Acting South African High Commissioner, Bobby Moroe, after the meeting in Abuja with the students’ leaders said his country was planning to engage Nigerian youth on a cultural exchange visit.
He said the motive behind the visit was to further tighten the existing relationship between Nigeria and South Africa.
Mr Moroe noted that the trip would enable the NANS members meet with their South African counterparts as part of measures to resolve attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.
However, trouble started when the other factional President of NANS, Danielson Bamidele, and other executive members stormed the South African High Commission and claimed to be the authentic representatives of students in Nigeria.
He said those invited for the meeting were impostors and not the executive members of NANS.
He berated the group for tarnishing the image of the students’ group and for accepting such offer while their compatriots were being killed in South Africa.
Bamidele’s faction thereafter descended on members of the Obande group, which had been inside the high commission building earlier.
It took the timely intervention of the police to arrest the situation.
EduCeleb.com recalls that the apex students’ organisation in Nigeria had been largely divided since it held its election in July 2018 with each side claiming legitimacy ever since.