Desmond Mgboh, Kano

Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has again attacked at his predecessor in office, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, describing his foreign scholarship programme as a ‘fraud’.

Speaking during a media interactive session in the state capital, the governor took a swipe at the foreign sponsorship programme which had sent scores of Kano students overseas, saying if re- elected, he would scrutinise and review the policy.

Reviewing the programme, Governor Ganduje maintained that contrary to claims by the former governor that he had settled the students’ tuition fees upfront,  the reality was that the state government had only paid the initial payments.

“We found a lot of corruption with the case. At present, the case is still with the anti-corruption agency  because  money was captured at the Cairo Airport which was money collected  from them and was being returned to Nigeria. That money is still in Cairo.”

Ganduje lamented that the most unfortunate  aspect was that the state government was paying a much higher than fees that the rest of the students as a result of the use consultants as go- between

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He observed that most of the foreign universities were not as competent as Nigeria’s first generation universities,  recalling that the  former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) had alerted Nigerians to the quality of these universities, but the then government was in mood for an honest criticisms.

“We also discovered that some of the Universities were not offering the courses we were sending our students to go and study…. They only started making arrangement to offer these courses after collecting our money” said the governor

“We also discovered that most of the courses that our students were sent to study are available in Nigeria. Somebody studying geography, somebody studying chemistry, somebody studying micro- biology, somebody studying micro- biology…”

He regretted that the state government is spending a total of N68, 000 on each of these students every month while pointing out that the states scholarship is about N30,000 per year.

He also lamented that some of the students were not attending classes regularly, just as some of them were facing disciplinary cases in their various institutions there.

“We were informed by the authorities if we want them to complete the courses we have to give them additional time, which means additional money.”