The Bauchi State Government said it has disbursed N98 million as scholarship to over 500 of its students studying in various tertiary institutions across the country.
This is even as the government described as misconception, lies and political propaganda put together by a group of students allegedly sponsored to make insinuations that the government was selective in the payment of the scholarship to qualified beneficiaries.
The Permanent Commissioner with the Bauchi state Scholarship Board, Barrister Hussaini Saraki, who stated this at a press conference on Thursday in Bauchi, noted that the text of the press conference held on Monday by the group was written and given to them to deliver with a view of causing misunderstanding and rancour among the generality of students in the state.
Some students had under the auspices of Air Marshal Abubakar Sadiq Students Forum, at a press conference on Monday, chided the Governor Bala -led administration in the state for what they termed as lackadaisical attitude to the education sector, stating that students were traumatised by the methods of the scholarship.
The Forum also blamed the government in the state for terminating the scholarships of 200 students of Malikiyya College of Health Technology, 10 each from the twenty Local Government Areas, whose scholarship was offered by the previous administration in the state.
But Saraki explained that as an institution dealing with students, the scholarship board was very careful with any information that can mislead the general public, hence their resolve to give a true picture of the situation.
He said, “It is not true, it is false, nothing like that happened. The reality of the situation is that when the present administration came on board, there was a challenge on the scholarship authority to digitise the system of allowances payment through an open portal for students placed on 5th October, 2021 through which the students applied for award of scholarships.”
He disclosed that about 12,000 students applied for the scholarship which led to the scrutiny of the students with their institutions, culminating into correspondences to forestall illegitimate students and do the right things with a view to judiciously use the funds allocated to the board.
“Out of the 97 institutions the board wrote to seeking information about the students, so far seven responded with genuine students numbering 5,033 to whom allowances payment started as the first batch gulping about N98 million.
“The board could not wait until all the 97 educational institutions responded before it started paying the students’ scholarship allowances, hence we started the payment in batches. All monies for that purpose are already intact and on ground for their beneficiaries as soon as we hear from their institutions and they are verified.”
On the issue of Malikiyya Health Institution students, the commissioner said the board was concerned about their plight because they are indigenes of the state, and the board equally shares their feelings, but as a government agency, things have to be done according to the law and order.
He said, “At the inauguration of the present administration in May 2019, the education committee of the take-over from the previous government discovered that huge sums of money were going to the Malikiyya institution, and recommended the need for the government to look into how these monies were being spent and what the actual money supposed to be going there to forestall siphoning of public funds”.
Saraki disclosed that the state government has put a committee in place to further investigate the circumstances surrounding the heavy flow of funds to Malikiyya, saying the report of the committee would be adopted by the government in providing the needs of the Malikiyya students who were genuine indigenes of the state.
Copyright PUNCH.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected]