By Dahiru Suleiman, Dutse
Students who are indigenes of Jigawa state studying in different tertiary institutions in the country have petitioned the state government over non-payment of three years scholarship allowances.
In the petition written and signed under the umbrella of Association of Jigawa Students of Tertiary Institutions under its leadership, Comrade Hassan Hadejia of Sule Lamido University, Kafin Hausa, stated that Jigawa state government paid half of the registration fees to its indigenes every year leaving unbearable scholarship arrears yearly.
It added that this unwholesome trend was conceived and inherited by the present administration blindly for unknown reasons perhaps to punish or retard the efforts of students in furtherance of their studies.
The petitioners called on Governor Badaru to wade into their plights with the hope of resolving the unpaid scholarship dues to students stressing, ‘It is disheartening to note most of us schooling in different tertiary institution’s are indebted to three years scholarship arrears, with no solution in sight”.
When contacted, the Executive Secretary Jigawa state Scholarship Board, Mal. Kamilu Ado Ringim debunked the claim by the students as unfounded, saying “we are up to date in monthly payment of scholarship on our student within and outside the state.”
Speaking in his office Thursday, the ES Scholarship board declared “As far as I am concern, we are not indebted to our students regarding the issue of payment of scholarship allowance it is only this year that we witnessed a slight delay”, assuring students of prompt payment soonest.
According to him, no state in the federation pays its students prompt monthly scholarship like Jigawa state as “we accord priority attention to education, hence our resolve to focus our attention firmly on payment of scholarship allowance to our students”, he asserted.
The statement expressed deep concern that neither the state assembly, nor Commissioner of Education uttered a word despite presenting their predicaments to them on different occasion during courtesy visit.
Prompt News recalls that the state government had conducted a screening exercise on 28/01/2021.
However, after five months, they selected only three schools within the state and disbursed the money to some students and not all.
The students expressed surprise that government went to the media and announced that they gave scholarships to all Jigawa state students.
The students lamented that there is no Students Union Government in this state as it has failed to discharge its responsibility to fight for students welfare.
