Kano state government has said it has spent a whooping over N5billion as scholarship backlog it had inherited from successive administrations in the state for the settlement of students’ tuition fees across some notable universities abroad.
Making the disclosure at a press conference in Kano, Tuesday, the chairman Kano State Public and Anti-Corruption Commission, Barrister Muhuyi Magaji Rimin-Gado said his commission was presently saddled with the responsibility of effecting outstanding payment for fresh students from Kano who were currently pursuing various academic courses abroad.
According to him, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was particularly worried about the unending demand on the issue which even the layman thought was supposed to have ended by now, adding that the Ganduje administration had already settled the sum of N5billion on foreign scholarship programme inherited from previous administrations that initiated the programme and yet the students were still complaining of being under financial pressure for one reason or the other.
He said, “This Commission’s intervention also reveals the following; there is no standard mode of financing the programme by the Government because at the initial stage, the SSG’s office, Ministry of Higher Education and Scholarship Board run the programme, therefore it makes it difficult to keep record.
“Consultants were used as intermediaries which makes the programme easy for manipulation. Allegation exists that fraudulent activities bedevil the programme and some of the hardships encountered by the students are orchestrated by some calling themselves consultants and other political gladiators.
“Members of the press, I want to use this medium to inform you that the commission as an interim measures, recommended for the payment of some requests in consideration of the condition of students and the government has so far released the sum of N144,000,000.00 to this office for this exercise, while we continue to unravel the truth.”