Kebbi Students Lament Non-Payment Of Scholarship Fees

Some students from Kebbi state during the weekend
expressed displeasure over the non-payment of their
scholarship by the state government.
In a meeting with the state governor, Abubakar Bagudu
the delegation of 40 students were by Musa Bunza and
Abdulrahman Diri from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria
(ABU Zaria) and Usman Danfodio University Sokoto
(UDUS) respectively laid several complaints on a backlog
of registration fees among others.
Abubakar Bagudu, the governor of Kebbi state
Some of the students from ABU Zaria disclosed that they
have not received either registration or scholarship
payments for the past eight years.
The student leaders added that previous
administrations had made several random payments
blindly under executive orders.
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“No verifiable records of how many students are from the
state or even the amount paid exist, the funds
appropriated goes in cash to various people, while most
students deny receiving such scholarship provisions.
“A fraudulent observation made was that each time this
cash get approved, students have already paid their fees
and most of them are not usually refunded,” a student
lamented.
Also, some of the Kebbi student indigenes at the Sokoto
state University complained of inadequate or lack of
accommodation.
In his response to the student’s plight, the state governor
promised to accelerate all due payments and to look into
ways of providing hostel for Kebbi students.
Bagudu said that there would be a total overhauling of the
education sector by his administration which he said will
not just cover registration for students but living expenses.
He said with the review of student’s scholarships in the
state, it is expected that confirmed students will get up to
40% to 50% increase in funding.
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“For the First time ever, we actually now know Kebbi state
has 4,097 students in Usman Danfodio University Sokoto
alone, this figure was gotten after the government ordered
the state scholarship board to carry out a verification
exercise of all students,” Bagudu said.
Bagudu further approved the release of N130,051,000 for
the payment of registration fees, matriculation of the
undergraduate students in the institution.
He ordered that all the students who had offset their fees
be refunded.
“Also, approval has already been given for the 60 Kebbi
state medical students studying in Sudan and India.
Delays are being experienced in transferring the money
due to the new foreign exchange guidelines,” he said.
However, the governor gave assurance that the issue was
under review by the Central Bank of Nigeria was being
looked at holistically by the CBN.
It has also been discovered that most often students from
the state do not formally apply for scholarship.
It was gathered that some of the students assume that
since they are from a state then scholarship is automatic.
“Scholarship is not an automatic right, it has to be applied
for through the scholarship board not the governor,” the
governor said.
Before now, scholarships were approved from the office of
the state governor but Bagudu noted that the practise will
not continue under his administration.
He said that all applications must be sent through the
state’s scholarship board and approvals gotten from
them.