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The National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS, 1956)

The National Union of Nigerian Students
The National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), founded in 1956, was a union that brought together Nigerian students at home and abroad.
NUNS was a branch of the West African Students’ Union (WASU) founded by Ladipo Solanke and Herbert Bright Bankole in 1925.
The union actively opposed the policies of the government on so many issues about Nigeria’s education system, the rights of students in Nigeria and many more.
In April 1978, The National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) fully participated in many campus protests across the nation against the increasement of university fees. More than twenty students were seriously injured and killed by the police and army sent to drive the protesting students away. As a result of this, the Federal Military Government closed down three universities and imposed a ban on NUNS. Later on, several university students and officials were dismissed.
 
In 1980, The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) was founded as a replacement for the banned NUNS. Two years earlier, in May 1986, over fifteen students of Ahmadu Bello University were killed by the police during a protest over the observation of the “Ali Must Go Day” (Ali was the then minister of education) in memory of the students massacred in the 1979 protest. This resulted into the FGM closing down nine out of the fifteen universities in Nigeria.
The National Association of Nigerian Students was also banned in 1986 after a student riot calling for the dismissals of the government and some police officials.

Cite this article as: Teslim Omipidan. (December 31, 2015). The National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS, 1956). OldNaija. Retrieved from https://oldnaija.com/2015/12/31/the-national-union-of-nigerian-students-nuns-1956/

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