Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso
According to a repot by The Nation, the Kano state government said
it has discovered the sum of over $1 million allegedly paid by former
governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to a university in Ukraine where no Kano
state student was studying.
The senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on
Higher Education, Dr. Hussaini Akilu Jarma, let the cat out of bag,
Tuesday, during the inauguration of the State Scholarship Disbursement
Committee.
Jarma said the questionable payment was made by Kwankwaso as part of his foreign scholarship programme.
A statement by Abba Anwar, chief press secretary to the Kano state Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said, “Investigation
reveals that a sum of $1,304,618 was abandoned in one University in
Ukraine, when the sum was taken there during the last administration in
the state.”
“No student was sent to the university at all. The money was
sent unattended and un-utilised. We said business should not be as usual
anymore,” he added.
In his remarks, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje lampooned Kwankwaso
for incurring debt of over N4 billion to the state with his foreign
scholarship program which he said was “planned to fail”.
“When we came in we were told that the past administration paid
everything. But when we conducted an investigation we came to realise
that, that statement was not true”
“The programme was not planned in accordance with organised
educational system. The arrangement was poorly done, in such a way that,
it was not planned to succeed.
“The programme was deliberately planned to fail. One can
question the wisdom behind sending our students to study areas like
Economics, for example, and other similar courses while we can have
better universities that run the courses within the country.”
Ganduje also complained that while other states withdrew their
students from foreign universities due to exorbitant cost, Kano managed
to allow its students to proceed with their education at such
universities despite the huge cost.
“They (other states) withdrew their students back home already.
But we, in Kano, we said since it was an agreement reached between the
state and those universities, we decided to continue with that, though
under harsh economic condition that is affecting the country,” he lamented.
“Though we are paying in tears, but we have to maintain that.
Because it was an agreement reached between Kano and the institutions.
That is why we are calling on parents to also chip in and contribute
towards attaining that. We are doing our best, while paying salary
without any hindrance to our workers we are still paying outstanding
debts on the foreign students. So also to other domestic universities.
“Those that are playing politics with this foreign scholarship
issue, is either they are not conversant with the happenings in the
circle of higher education or they pass through university not
university passing through them,”
He expressed disgust on why Kwankwaso should send students to such
an expensive foreign universities to study courses like economics and
political science, while “we have better universities in the country that give more quality education”.
Ganduje, said his administration inherited 1,130 foreign students
from Kwankwaso’s government who were sent to various universities like
China’s Shenyang University and SSIMS & RC, India’s Galgotias
University and NOIDA University, Cyprus’s Near East University and UTM.
Others were sent to Malaysia’s Malaya University and Lincoln
University, Uganda’s Kampala University, Egypt’ s October 6 University,
Al-Mansoura University, El-Razi University and Al-Ahfad University,
Sudan’s Omdurman University, National University and Niger Republic’s
Maryam Abacha University.
For the Nigerian private universities the total debt of Seven
Hundred and Sixty Three Million, Four Hundred and Eight Thousand, Three
Hundred and Seventy One Naira (N763, 408,371) was paid as a debt being
inherited from the immediate past administration. These are universities
like Crescent University, Abeokuta, American University of Nigeria,
Al-Qalam University, among others.