We Spent over N20bn on Foreign Scholarship, Ganduje Replies Abba

Ahmad Sorondinki in Kano

Former  governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has said his administration spent over N20 billion on 111, 687 indigent students for overseas postgraduate foreign scholarship in 14 countries, contrary to claims by his successor that his administration did not sponsor any foreign scholarship.

In a press statement by the former Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs in the administration, Malam Muhammad Garba, explained that the  amount covered tuition fees, upkeep, accommodation, and air tickets among others.

“This is against the background of a false claim by the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) that Ganduje had not paid foreign scholarship in his eight years administration in the state.”

According to him, the amount was earmarked for students of postgraduate foreign scholarship in India, Malaysia, Egypt, Cyprus, China, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, Togo, Ireland, Gambia, Ukraine as well as local universities.

He  further explained that, the postgraduate students were sent in three batches to top-ranking universities in France and some European countries, mostly to study science-related courses

Garba said available records indicated that in addition to the above, the former administration sponsored 50 lecturers from its two universities and other tertiary institutions for their doctoral degrees in French prestigious universities under a programme jointly carried out between the French and Kano State governments.

The commissioner pointed out that over N600 million was spent on the joint tuition-free postgraduate scholarship between the state government and the French Embassy in Nigeria.

The ex-commissioner further stated that the Ganduje administration re-introduced the payment of scholarship allowances to indigenous students attending Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions, which was completely abandoned by the Kwankwaso administration between 2011 and 2015.

He added that under the scheme, the sum of N865.4 million was disbursed as scholarship allowances and provision of logistics for the payment exercise to indigenous students in the five Emirates across the 44 local governments of the state.

The commissioner said the former administration also reviewed upward by 50 per cent scholarship allowances to the students.