Crisis in NANS as factional president accuses Seyi Tinubu of interference

Atiku Abubakar Isah, a factional president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), has accused Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, of interference in the affairs of the student body.

Speaking during the inauguration ceremony of the association on Tuesday in Abuja, Isah alleged that Seyi planned to disrupt the inauguration of the NANS executives.

The factional president said the association hastily organised the inauguration to keep disruptors at bay.

“Seyi is an ordinary citizen like myself. He does not occupy any official position. I told them yesterday that even if I’m coming to this hall and I will be shot, I will still come to this hall,” he claimed.

“At the end of today, the inauguration is completed, and I’m the NANS president. Seyi can do anything he wants to do.”

Isah alleged that he was tortured and forced to resign his position on April 16, 2025.

Over the past few months, the student body has been polarised into two factions due to the leadership tussle within its national leadership.

In February, Olusola Oladoja was elected as NANS president by one of the factions at a convention in Abuja, the country’s capital.

Another NAN faction elected Isah as national president during a convention.

In an interview on Channels TV on Wednesday, Henry Okunomo, a former senate president of NANS, said the association is becoming “porous” due to the alleged involvement of the president’s son in its affairs.

Okunomo lamented that the ideology of the student body has shifted from advocacy for students to political patronage.

“With the involvement of the president’s son for the past one year, he has done everything to make sure that the organisation is porous,” the ex-student leader had said.

“What he stands to gain, I don’t know. What he wants to achieve, I don’t know. But the question I want the general public to ask him is, what is his interest in NANS?”

‘ISAH’S ALLEGATIONS COMPLETELY FICTIONAL’

Reacting to the allegations via his official  Instagram handle on Friday, the president’s son said he did not visit the venue of the NANS inauguration with thugs.

Seyi accused Isah of telling lies against him with “so much confidence” to defame him.

“I have never held a meeting to discuss any subject matter with Comrade Isah in Lagos or anywhere else in the world,” Seyi said.

“I have never knowingly met him before. Neither did I visit any location with thugs. All these allegations by Atiku Isah are completely fictional.”