The administration of former Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, spent over N20 billion on 111,687 indigent students for overseas postgraduate foreign scholarships in 14 countries, a former commissioner has said.
He added that the administration sponsored postgraduate students in five private universities, the Nigerian Law School, and other local universities from June 2015 to March 2023.
Muhammad Garba, Mr Ganduje’s commissioner for information and internal affairs, disclosed this in a statement issued in Kano on Monday.
Mr Garba was reacting to a claim by the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) that Mr Ganduje did not pay any foreign scholarship fees in his eight-year administration of the state.
The former commissioner said the amount covered tuition fees, upkeep, accommodation and air ticket, among others, and was earmarked for students of postgraduate foreign scholarship in India, Malaysia, Egypt, Cyprus, China, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, Togo, Ireland, Gambia and Ukraine as well as universities in Nigeria.
He said available records indicate that in addition to the above, the former administration also sponsored 50 lecturers from its two universities and other tertiary institutions for their doctorate degrees in prestigious universities in France under a programme jointly carried out between the French and Kano state governments.
The former 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.
He said it was unfortunate that the present administration in the state was laying claims to the success of the foreign and local scholarship, adding that Mr Ganduje’s predecessor left a burden of about $28 million and over N6 billion, respectively, which the Ganduje administration had settled more than 80 per cent of.
Mr Garba stated further 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.
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 government areas of the state.
Mr Garba said the Ganduje administration also reviewed upward by 50 per cent scholarship allowances to the students.
