Education

By Ambali Abdulkabeer

During a plenary on Wednesday a couple of weeks ago, a member of the House of Representatives, Emeka Chinedu Martins, moved a motion titled Need to Grant Automatic Employment to First Class Graduates. It means that all first-class graduates in Nigeria should be given automatic employment. He stressed that the move would minimize the rate at which intelligent graduates troop out of the country on a daily basis in search of better opportunities abroad.

He also argued that Nigerians would be discouraged from seeking admission into universities abroad in the hope of getting well-paying jobs upon their graduation. But, much as fabulous as this motion appears on the surface, it will lead to a total collapse of Nigeria’s already battered university education. Here is why.

It is a simple fact that university education in Nigeria has changed from being a source of automatic access to decent jobs. In the past, people with university degrees were begged to take up well-paying jobs right from school time. Upon graduation, opportunities surfaced in numbers because there were already places in government and private institutions in need of their priceless knowledge and skills. In Nigeria today, given the terribly saturated labour market due to the government’s continued irresponsibility, graduates, including those with first-class, roam the streets in search of good jobs that are not available.

This reality is worsened by the culture of ‘job sale’ which affords well-to-do individuals and politicians the illicit opportunity to buy jobs for their children and their mistresses, usually at the expense of brilliant but poor graduates. As this continues to drive employment philosophy in Nigeria’s public and private institutions, graduates seek opportunities elsewhere because they no longer believe in the system.

Should the motion transmogrify into law, the entire university system will completely pass as where everything goes only for students to graduate with any class of their choice. In other words, one of the dangers of the thoughtless move is that the university certificates will become ruthlessly commodified. Students that know their way will graduate from settling lecturers for good grades to going to any length to secure a class they don’t deserve, thereby rendering university education more irrelevant than it has been.

Consequently, recruiting empty-headed first-class graduates into severally sensitive government institutions means that the country will be in more disaster. After all, it’s no longer news that Nigeria is notorious for the culture of placing the wrong hands in the right places or vice versa. That’s why both federal and state civil service systems are rife with people that constitute a threat to the country’s progress.

Automatic employment to first-class graduates, needless to say, isn’t a bad idea at all, but that is in a country with a serious, trustworthy and top-class university education system. But unfortunately, Nigeria’s university system is grounded in systemic crises ranging from corruption, lack of human and material resources and others. This is manifest in the ongoing closure of universities due to the ASUU strike emanating from the government’s poverty of sincerity in public education and lack of interest in the welfare of lecturers.

In lieu of giving automatic employment to first-class graduates, the government should be advised to start fixing our dwindling education system first. They should begin to place a premium on genuine education as the foundation for the prosperity the country urgently demands. The fixing should start with a cosmopolitan review of the university curriculum to align our system with the 21st century.

Moreover, it won’t be a bad idea for the government to learn from the education systems of developed countries of the world while working tirelessly and sincerely to strike an innocuous balance between our reality and what our education system deserves to be globally competitive. If truth be told, a university education that graduates cannot leverage to live a decently meaningful life is an embarrassment.

Government must cease being wasteful and corrupt. A considerable amount of money diverted to fund irrelevant projects such as elections should instead be used to rejig our deteriorating education system. Nothing is as depressing as the fact that most Nigerians don’t have a smidgen of belief in the ability of the county to make their dreams a reality. That is why they prefer staying in countries other than Nigeria.

On a final note, what kind of illogical plan deems a crop more critical than the soil that produces it? This question analogically says a lot about the thoughtlessly greedy perspectives of our leaders who are supposed to lead us in the match to make our education system enviable and standard.

Ambali Abdulkabeer is a writer and critic of contemporary writing. He can be reached via abdulkabeerambali@gmail.com.

By Aminu Naganye

United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Lagos, in collaboration with Media Awareness and Information for All Networks (MAIN), has organised a two-day workshop for journalists in Kano on mainstreaming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their routine journalistic activities.

The programme tagged “Training Journalists on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and developing a Network of Sustainable Development Journalists” took place at the Kano State Library from Monday, March 21, to Tuesday, March 22, 2022. The event is a part of training for journalists across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria on how to mainstream the SDGs into their professional engagements.

UNIC Director, Mr Ronald Kayanja, noted that the training was to expose the journalists to the key issues of the SDGs and how they can contribute their part toward achieving the 2030 sustainable development agenda.

Mr Kayanja, who was represented by Dr Oluseyi Soremekun, stressed the need for partnership and collaboration among all stakeholders toward achieving the SDGs at the stipulated time.

On his part, the Chairman of the occasion, Professor Lai Oso, said the objective of the training was to acquaint the participants with social, economic and environmental dimensions in reporting issues related to sustainable development. 

He said sustainable journalism should be people-centred and geared toward proffering solutions to identified societal challenges.

Head Technical, Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Dr Bala Yunusa, who was represented by Dr Zakariyya Mohammed, explained Nigeria’s progress and challenges in implementing the SDGs in Nigeria and called on the media personnel to remain supportive to achieving the SDGs and Nigerian Agenda 2050.

Dr Yunusa noted that Nigeria has recorded successes in the previous MDGs and is now determined to achieve more with the SDGs.

At least 50 journalists drawn from traditional media of radio, television, newspaper, and online-based news media participated in the workshop.

The participants were decorated with emblems as champions of the SDGs.

By Professor Salisu Shehu

The impact that teachers make on students vary in type, magnitude and degree. And as well, they differ in the way and manner they influence students. While to a great extent students unconsciously internalise/emulate certain manners, characters and styles of their teachers, in some cases that is done consciously and deliberately too. This is the fact that I am obliged to reveal as I pay tribute to my teacher and mentor all through my teaching career in the university. In other words, I am hereby proclaiming to the World that Professor Maiwada not only taught me, but he was in the top rank of my mentors and role models.

Professor Maiwada taught me Educational Psychology, Research Methods and Statistics in my second and third years of undergraduate studies and again he taught me the same courses at my master’s degree level. Indeed it was Professr Maiwada that made me love Educational Psychology and influenced me to eventually specialise in it.

I so much admired Professor Maiwada’s style of teaching. Once he enters the lecture room/theatre, after the usual greetings and courtesies between the lecturer and students, he would turn to the board (black as it was then) and write the topic and the outline of his lecture. He would then take students through the outline (sub-topics) to the end. His writing on the board and on paper was not only clear and legible but quite neat and beautiful. It would be difficult to hear students complaining that they did not understand Professor MAIWADA’S lecture. This is a style of instruction that I consciously and deliberately adopted up to this moment.

More importantly, my intellectual debut and voyage into the ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE paradigm and school of thought were principally owed to the influence of Professor Maiwada. Two other teachers of mine that also influenced me in this regard are the late Dr. Musa Ahmed and Professor Aliyu Dauda. It was however, Professor Maiwada that really mentored me in this regard. When I wrote my M. ED Dissertation on: “A Study of the Islamic Perspective of Cognitive Development: Implications for Education”, supervised by the late Dr. Musa Ahmed, Professor Maiwada was indeed my defacto supervisor. He painstakingly read every single line of my work, meticulously corrected and advised me appropriately and where necessary.

Although, he surely had clear mastery of his subject matter of instruction, Professor Maiwada would never brag in the classroom or even try to make a show of it. He would, however, in his typical soft spoken manner, deliver his lecture with pedagogical effectiveness and mastery.

Professor Maiwada was not just a role model in the classroom. His entire teaching life presents an exemplary disposition of academic discipline, rigour and intellectual adeptness. Once he comes to the faculty he would either be in the class teaching or in the office going through students’ projects, dissertations and theses. He was never given to petty talks or sundry gossips. As he made his way to the office he would greet and answer greetings with a dint of politeness and humbleness. He was one of our older Professors that never sent their pens on leave. Not surprisingly, he was prolific up to the time of his retirement churning out papers and editing journal articles and book chapters and returning them within stipulated times. It was very rare if not impossible to hear any student complaining that Professor Maiwada had held his (project, dissertation or thesis) chapter beyond reasonable time without returning it read, improved, or corrected.

Though he was obviously apolitical, but destiny conferred on him the privilege of holding almost all academic/administrative positions of leadership in the university. Across three different universities (Bayero University, Kano, Al-Qalam University, Katsina and Northwest University – now Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano) the Katsina-born Professor was a Head of Department, a Dean, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor and a Vice-Chancellor without having to contest at any given time. For the records, he was the Pioneer Vice Chancellor of Al-Qalam University, Katsina. At two different times of leadership interregnum he acted as a Vice-Chancellor in both Bayero University, Kano and Yusuf Maitama Sule University respectively.

As the academic trail blazer that he was he presented, to my mind, the first ever valedictory lecture at the point of his retirement just last month before the commencement of the ASUU strike. Unknown to us all, he was only having barely a month and some weeks to his grave.

He purposely called to tell me about the lecture and the date that was scheduled. I missed it and out of respect and adoration I called to apologise. He told me that it did not hold but was postponed. When the second date was fixed he again called. I made it a point to attend. But as destiny would have it, I got an appointment of visa interview in Lagos on the same date. So I did miss it. I could not call to apologise again out of shyness.

It was only a few days ago I heard of his sickness. I could not even visit him in the hospital because I was out of Kano for a couple of weeks. I just got the shocking news of his death. It was such a tragic loss to the Ummah and indeed to the the academia and Bayero University, Kano.

May I use this medium to condole his immediate family, the Departments of Education and Special Education, the Faculty of Education and the Vice – Chancellor, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas. Incidentally we were both his students, although not in the same class.

“Of the believers are men who are true to that which they covenanted with Allah. Some of them have paid their vow by death (in battle), and some of them still are waiting; and they have not altered in the least”. Suratul Ahzab, verse 23.

May Allah, al-Ghafur, al-Raheem forgive him and shower His Infinite Mercy on him. May He give us the fortitude to bear the loss.

By Ibrahim Tukur

Becoming a doctor was my childhood dream. When I was a child, I had an overwhelming desire to save as many lives as possible. The dream was nurtured by my elder sister Maryam Tukur. But back in school, I never performed well in class. More often, I scored low in the exams. That was what principally irritated my father. Although my father couldn’t read nor write, he more often than not flogged me for performing poorly in the examinations.

When I was in primary two, my father employed a tutor to teach us at home but sadly, it never worked on me. Like a dumb, I never grasped anything the tutor taught me. That even made my father angrier.

While we were in the second term, I suddenly fell seriously ill and lost my hearing sense to meningitis. In my parents’ strenuous efforts to restore my hearing, they took me to different doctors and herbalists who prescribed me some medicines that never worked. Finally, after many abortive treatments, my parents gave up the struggles and left everything to Allah, the Exalted of all.

Life became very challenging for me when I became deaf. My friends gradually avoided me. I was often lonely in school and at home. My father became hopeless about my education. Even my dream of becoming a doctor scattered itself like broken glass. 

When my academic performance worsened, which my teachers constantly complained about, my father withdrew me from school and kept me at home doing nothing.

A year later, upon recommendation, my father admitted me into Government School for the Deaf, Malumfashi. That was where I began to thrive. It was there that I learned to write my name, nay, perceived life from extraordinary angles.

I’m currently a 400 level student at Bayero University, Kano (BUK). Unfortunately, due to some problems, I could not realize my dream of becoming a doctor. But Alhamdulillah. Deafness is not a barrier to greatness.

By Umar Nasale Ibrahim

Whoever wants live in the world with others after his body leaves the open space should write. A reader, they say, lives a thousand lives before he dies. A writer, as he is also a reader, lives many other lives after he dies. Thus, a writer benefits more than a reader.

Abubakar Gimba died some years back, leaving a handful of books of great might to the posterity to enjoy. Although I haven’t met him to learn of his living policies yet, he had sent them to me before he departed, reaching me late the previous year. He published many books, out of which only three came to me to read for the time being.

“Witnesses to Tears” is the first I encountered, and out of pleasure and amusement of how I enjoyed it, I looked for “Sacred Apples”. Not long after finishing it, a friend came with “Footprints”, and I snatched it to read. These are the books, out of almost twelve publications he had/has, I could lay my hands on. Reading them has been like a conversation of the admonition of how to live with others. In fact, this is my takeaway from the books.

“Footprints”, for example, is permeated with political inequities of the civilian and military governments of a fictional state I presume to be Nigeria. The political paradox discussed in the book, in the end, turned out not to be what I learned from it. The social relationship of the characters in the narration that develops its plot still fascinates me. Though in this regard, one may say that the writer is conscious of it, not all the readers may apparently take care of it.

The central home in the book is composed of two living parents with three children. Two males and a female, though the other male is much of a minor character. The female child, Farah, is a university graduate teaching at a secondary school her younger brother joins later in the book. This is one of the fascinating things the book has left me with. The male parent, Jibran, was a teacher, so his child became one. She engages in a relationship with her co-teachers, and Jibran has never been aversed in the relationship. The open-arm welcome to the teaching profession, the loving arms with which it is embraced and the burning desire to turn the lives of others in the book through the good profession is an emulable action.

That’s one. And to be precise, not to say much, the most important other issue is the interfaith relationship of the characters. Haytham and Basil are the intimate co-working mates of our female character, Farah. Haytham is a Christian and has been the boyfriend of Farah for a long time before Basil turned to show interest in her and thus married her later. The duo has become constant visitors of the house, first as friends, for courtesy and later, for a date. No matter the nature of the visit, Jibran would warmly engage them in conversation about the leadership of the country and the way out. Farah, with her father, would be supporting the country’s civilian activists to be given power, while others would intellectually be opposing her views. Usually, the conversations last long and no way in it one would dare include religion in it. The actual outlook of one’s humanity is the concern.

This was ringing in my ears while I was reading the book. Just telling me of how Gimba lived in the community he lived. And for sure, he was a religious man of dignity. But, to say he was a reader is just an insult to his reading avidity.

May Jannatul Firdaus be his current comforting home, amin

Umar Nasale Ibrahim can be reached via: umarnasaleibrahim@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam 

The former governor of Kano State, Engineer Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, has bagged a PhD in Water Engineering from Sharda University, India.

Kwankwaso was said to have defended his PhD dissertation on Tuesday, March 14, 2022.

This was in a Facebook post from his page and has later sparked to the walls and pages of other ardent Kwankwasiyya followers.

Of what has come as jubilation, many people have taken to their various social media platforms to celebrate the two-time former Kano State governor and senator representing Kano Central. 

The post read: “Congratulations to His Excellency Engr. Dr Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, for your successful viva presentation in PhD Water Engineering today (14th March 2022) at Sharda University, India. 

“From his right is Prof. Gaurav Saini (his supervisor), from his left, Prof. Rameshwar Adhikar (Tribhuwan University), Kathmandu Nepal (his External Examiner) and other Distinguished professors during his successful Final viva presentation.”

By Muhammad Sabiu

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will meet on Sunday for its National Executive Council (NEC) to assess the ongoing strike and determine the appropriate action to take next.

The union’s president, Emmanuel Osodeke, a soil science professor, stated this on Saturday but did not provide details about the scheduled meeting.

A member of the NEC who did not want to be named to avoid sanctions, however, indicated that the meeting would be held in Abuja.

Recall that about a month ago, the union declared a one-month warning strike to mount pressure on the Federal Government to have its promises fulfilled.

Therefore, tomorrow’s meeting is the determinant as to whether the strike will continue or not.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

It is the grass that suffers when two elephants fight. This is the sad situation of students in Nigeria’s public universities. Students find themselves suffering anytime ASUU goes on strike.

The innocent Nigerian students bear the brunt of the impasse of the duo – the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government. At the end of every fight for a better condition of service by ASUU, their remuneration is paid, but the students are left to compensate themselves for the time they lost and the emotional trauma caused by the strike.

As legitimate as ASUU’s demands may be, keeping students at home to pursue these demands does not appear logical to me. As for the government, their attitude reminds me of Gbemisola Adeoti’s poem, “Ambush” where the literary genius described the land using many metaphors to demonstrate how dreams are murdered.

Students dreams are unceremoniously halted whenever ASUU embarks on strike. Some lose interest in education altogether, and others continue with less enthusiasm. Clichés like ‘school na scam’ seems to then make sense and many students embrace crimes like cyber fraud popularly known with the sobriquet ‘yahoo yahoo’ as an alternative to education. This is among the many problems usually caused by strikes.

Adeoti was right in his poem when he said, “The land is a giant whale that swallows the sinker, with hook line and bait aborting dreams of good catch fishers turn home at dusk blue peter on empty ships” Many students often try to escape this land that consumes dreams, they seek education in small neighbouring countries like Togo, Niger and Ghana etc. Some stay back to attend private universities they can afford while politicians and wealthy people send their children to Europe to get education. ASUU’s strike is not only demarketing our public universities in Nigeria. This attitude slowly kills the dreams and the universities, as anyone with a choice will not consider the option of attending one.

ASUU’s strike put students at a disadvantage in the pursuit of their progress, happiness and other life aspirations. It causes them unnecessary delays. They watched their peers in private universities graduate and take on the next steps in their lives while they are consoled with the saying that God’s time is the best. The Nigerian student is often stared in the face with the reality of George Orwell’s saying that “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others. A country that is seemingly careless about the education of its people is breeding the ground for poverty and crimes.

Quality education is no doubt the key to the greatness of any nation. But, sadly, it is not on the priority list of our leaders. While the government takes the most considerable blame for why universities are always on strike; we cannot wholly excuse ASUU for their complicity in killing the university education in Nigeria by going on regular strikes which often leave students stranded and confused.

Please ASUU change your strategy, we suffer every time.

Ahmad Deedat Zakari can be reached via ahmadzakari111@gmail.com.

By Professor Abdelmalik Abdelghaffar Amoka

ASUU in 2008, provided pictorial documentation on the state of infrastructural decay in public universities to the Federal Government (FG). After several struggles and strikes, FG put together a Committee on the NEEDS assessment of the public universities, headed by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the then TETFund Boss. Prof Mahmood Yakubu’s committee after a thorough work recommended that 1.3 trillion naira is required to revitalize all the public universities (Federal and State universities) to make them suitable learning environments for the normal human being.

Just like the 2021 visitation panel report and the 2021 report of the renegotiated 2009 agreement, the NEEDS Assessment report was dumped somewhere till ASUU declared another strike in 2013 for the report to get attention. An agreement was then reached between ASUU and FG after the 2013 strike that the fund will be spread from 2013 to 2018. GEJ’s government released 200 billion naira for 2013 before he was voted out and Buhari’s government took over in 2015. As of 2013, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, Mal. Adamu Adamu, Mal Nasiru El-Rufai, Alh Lai Muhammed, and APC as a party believe that the government of Jonathan was “irresponsible” for their failure to implement the agreement reached with ASUU on public universities. They gave all sorts of convincing supporting reasons why FG can meet the demands of ASUU. El-Rufai was in OBJ’s government and he knows how government works. So, hypocrisy did not come to people’s mind, they didn’t see any point in doubting his position and his 2013 post on the ASUU strike went viral.

The general public is always on the fence during these fights for university revitalization. Some choose who to support based on where their loyalty lies at that moment. That is the reason why those who were against the FG on the ASUU strike in 2013 and now supporting FG on ASUU strike on the same issues. Since 2015, the APC government has refused to release the funds for public universities. After about 4 ASUU strike actions for the last 7 years of the government of President Buhari, they have not been able to release up to 100 billion naira for universities revitalization. Meanwhile, they are adding more universities.

There is this class of public school beneficiaries that believe that FG does not have 1 trillion naira to fix our universities to make them attractive to any student except through the introduction of tuition fees. But some of us think that the people, including civil servants, are too poor to afford tuition for University education, else it will become an elitist institution. Public schools produce us and some of us are super-rich. So, if we believe that FG is actually broke to fund education, then we can intervene to revitalize the public universities in the interest of national development and for the love of the country.

Nigerians are cheerful givers. Our business moguls, media celebrities are fond of gifting their friends. Not sure if it’s for show-off. For example, Nightlife boss, Obinna Iyiegbu, popularly known as Obi Cubana got cash and other gifts worth over 250 million naira for his mother’s burial in July 2021. David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido in November 2021 raised 200 million naira within hours that he donated to the orphanage. I recently saw an unconfirmed impressive list of donations for the Attah of Igala coronation from my brothers. There are several of such donations. This is evidence that Nigerians are cheerful givers.

Nigeria’s generous donation of one million dollars to the Humanitarian Trust Fund for Afghanistan shows that even the government is generous. Only a cheerful giver will use 100 billion naira to rehabilitate non-functional refineries that are still not functioning. Only a cheerful giver will pay 69 billion naira as salaries to refinery workers that generated zero revenue and only go to work to warm their office chairs.

The public primary school system is dead, the public school system is dead, and the public university system has nearly collapsed. But why don’t we extend this generosity and cheerful giving to the education of the ordinary Nigerian? why can’t the elites donate a fraction of the money they sent abroad to educate their kids?

The agreement in 2013 was for FG to release N210 billion naira every year for 5 years. 9 years later, not up to 23% of the fund was released to the universities after 9 years. Maybe FG is actually broke even though they are establishing more universities and the key players are getting richer. A poor and broken man doesn’t add to his responsibilities.

Let’s apply the principle of our supposed generosity and cheerful giving to solving our education problem. Let’s open a public schools revitalization endowment fund. Let’s get 100 thousand cheerful givers from politicians, businessmen, captains of industries, Bank CEOs, celebrities, and the noisy “Abroadians” to donate 200 thousand naira every month for a year. That will give us 240 billion naira revitalization fund annually. Do that for 5 years and we’ll have 1.2 trillion naira to revitalize public universities.

Put up Board of Trustee and Fund management team from the donors to ensure that the fund is shielded from mismanagement. Nobody wants to see his money misused. Then, ASUU won’t have to go on strike for revitalization and will limit ASUU’s demands to welfare. The government won’t be looking for tuition fee that is not there or students’ loan that is not sustainable, students won’t have to stay at home for months due to strike. The university will be good enough for our big men that ship our money abroad. The industries will get a quality workforce. The universities will be attractive to international students and we’ll start earning forex from education.

But unfortunately, our cheerful giving in Nigeria does not extend to public education. Public education made us and we are either part of those destroying it or watching it destroyed without any slight resistance. It’s like a case of climbing to the top through the public education ladder and destroying the ladder after getting to the top. And unfortunately, the supposed middle class, a class that is nearly wiped out, that needs the ladder is afraid of the oppressors but blames ASUU.

Amoka is a social analyst, prolific writer and a Professor of Physics, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

By Aisar Fagge

A picture of a 13-year-old Hausa boy, Musa Sani, who designed a flyover prototype trended social media platforms with many comments about the magic hand and brain of the young child.

Upon seeing that, there was news that Ronchess Global Resources Plc offered the child a scholarship and an automatic offer at their construction company. The Daily Reality followed up the story and spoke with the CEO and founder of the company, Jackson Ukuevo, who said:

“Yes, it is true. I have spoken to one Ali Usman from Borno, who said he’ll speak to the guy’s parents. We gonna move him to Abuja. I’m gonna put him in one of the best schools in Abuja. A private school. When he’s done from there, I’m gonna ensure that he gets to the United States of America (USA) to further his education to build on his horizon. He’ll then come back and do something real for us.

Because what I saw, I don’t think it is something anyone should leave behind. For that child [at his age] to design that [flyover prototype] and actually build on that, then if we give him the opportunity and put him in the right position, with all the accessories and resources he needs, and also be with the mindset of the same people with the same creativity he has, we’re sure he’s gonna do something wonderful.”

When he was asked whether he has spoken to the child’s parents, he said:

“I haven’t spoken to his parents. I just spoke with someone (Usman Ali) who said he’ll speak to his parents and he’s gonna try to speak with the emir of village or something, then once that is done upon the parents’ acceptance, we will move the child and his parents to Abuja. There I’m gonna ensure that the child gets one of the best schools in Abuja. Then, upon all this, hopefully, he completes his education and everything, we make sure he furthers it outside the country. We believe he’ll come back and give back to the society something great.”

The Daily Reality then asked the CEO when he’s planning to go to Maiduguri and meet the child’s parents to show seriousness in his company’s promise he closed with: “We are just waiting for his parents’ acceptance of our offer. Once they accept it, we’re ready to go down there and meet them. If they accept it today, tomorrow we’ll be there and finalize everything.”

The Daily Reality also spoke with the first person who posted the picture of Musa Sani with his flyover prototype on her Facebook page, Yagana Bukar, on whether she knows Ali Usman, who was given the assignment to speak to the parents of the boy.

She said, “Yes, I know him. Right now, he’s in Abuja, but he’s coming back tomorrow. When I posted the picture of the boy, I tagged him and the governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Umar Zulum, hoping someone will help the child to study engineering abroad. Now Allah has answered my prayer.”