About a hundred students sponsored by the Kano State Government at Digital Bridge Institute have expressed their worries over the state government’s failure to pay for their certificates five years after graduation.
The students decried that the state government has not paid the designated fees to the institute to enable them to collect their results since 2019.
They complained that the development is delaying their education as they are left stranded for over five years.
The students said they need the certificate to further their education and apply for various job opportunities, saying their future would remain bleak if the government refused to intervene.
The Daily Reality gathered that the Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, had sponsored 100 students, 40 males and 60 females, to study at the institute in 2017.
The students were sponsored to study various ICT programs such as Software Engineering, Multimedia Technology, Networking and System Security, Hardware Engineering and Telecommunications.
Our future is bleak students
The graduates said their educational careers were at risk, saying the years they spent at the institute would be wasted if the government refused to intervene.
One of the graduates, who pleaded anonymity, said he missed many opportunities, including admissions to study abroad because he has not collected his certificate.
He said, “I was offered three admissions to study in India, but I could not go because my certificate was not given to me.
“Some of my colleagues told me that they even got job offers. However, they could not go for an interview since they didn’t have the certificate.
“I would have scored admission and graduated had I the certificate. Probably got employed in an organisation.”
Muktar Ibrahim (not a real name) said he wanted to further his education but could not lay his hand on his diploma certificate after graduation in 2019.
He said, “I wanted to further my education. However, I have no certificate to seek direct entry into the university.”
Aisha Hussain (not a real name) said it was painful that she was yet to acquire a degree certificate while some of her sisters and friends were serving their one-year mandatory NYSC.
She said, “We have long been expecting the payment by the government for the release of our certificates. It is sad that some of my sisters and friends have completed their degrees even though I started schooling before them.
“I also got so many opportunities. However, I hopelessly saw them pass as I could not go for any of them,” she stated.
Government ignores our appeals
Since graduation, the students said they have been pleading with the government to settle the outstanding debt to enable them to collect their certificates.
The students went to various media stations pleading with the government to come to their aid and settle the debt.
They said they also wrote letters to the Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, through the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Education of the state.
However, all their efforts were in vain, as their plea did not yield any positive result from the government.
Some of these letters.
We are still not tired – students
The students who spoke to The Daily Reality said they are still not tired of sending their passionate appeals to the government to consider them.
They said they are still hopeful and pleading with Governor Ganduje to settle the debt before he leaves office this 2023.
Halima Ibrahim (not a real name) pleaded, “I urge his Excellency, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to help us and pay for our certificates.
The lady said her parents are poor and therefore placed all their hopes on her certificate.
Another student who asked not to be named said, “Your Excellency, we know you are good and kind to the poor. We are your children. We are pleading with you to consider us.”
Maimuna Sunusi said, “Our parents cannot afford to settle this debt. Therefore, we are pleading with His Excellency to pay for our certificates and not to waste the years we spent at the institute.”
Kano State Government response
Our reporter has made several attempts to hear from the government, but all his efforts were in vain.
While the Public Relation Officer of the Kano State Ministry of Higher Education, Sunusi Abdullahi Kofar Na’isa, denied knowledge of the development, the Ministry’s Commissioner, Mariya Bunkure, could not be reached for comment.
His name was Sadik. Perhaps about 11 years old. He walked into my newly allocated office in the old Mass Communications building of Bayero University Kano (Nigeria) in 2013. I was startled. He was a tiny boy with deep dark skin, a beautiful face with intense eyes and a dolphin smile. He asked if I wanted to buy Fura (steamed millet balls blended in cow milk, often used as dessert, although it could stand on its own as a nutritious meal). He did not look like any of the usual urchins who thronged the corridors of the building look for odd jobs – run errands, empty trash, sweep office when those officially charged – and paid – to do so did not. Intrigued, I ordered one. He disappeared and returned some twenty minutes later with the Fura in a transparent plastic bag. I paid him, and that was that.
He returned the following day. When I declined to buy it because I didn’t feel like drinking the Fura, he insisted I buy it for others. When I asked why, he simply retorted that I appeared richer than other staff because, first, I was a professor, and second my office was larger. I was amused by his evaluation of my finances based on my position. And true, my office was the largest for staff, but I was a new bride in the Department – having been wedded to Mass Communication after an amicable transfer from the Department of Science and Technology (thus the ‘double’ professor tag), and all stops were pulled to make me welcome. Based on his logic of having a larger office, if not a deeper pocket, I bought about ten and asked him to distribute them to colleagues.
Sadik was to become a regular fixture in the corridor. Always after 2.00 p.m. One day he came with a blue checkered school uniform. Mentally, I thanked the boy who gave him the ‘hand me down’. The uniform was from Musa Iliyasu College, located along Gwarzo Road, a few kilometres from the New Campus of Bayero University Kano. This was a private and prestigious high school in Kano, attended by the children of the well-to-do.
I was told, however, that the uniform was his own and that he was indeed a student at the famous prestigious college. Curious about the human aspect of this development, I decided to delve further. What I found was what I want to share with you regarding the world of Hausa women.
Sadik did not come from an elite home. He was from a large Fulani family living in a ruga (a Fulani cattle encampment) near Janguza Army Barracks in Kano – itself a few kilometres from Bayero University Kano, New Campus, along Gwarzo freeway. The unit was a father, three wives and eighteen children. Sadik was the eldest in his mother’s room. They were herders. Indeed, Sadik was born near Tamburawa along Zaria Road in Kano when the family was on the move in 2002. They camped near Janguza Barracks, where they located their ‘hometree’.
The mother was the one selling the Fura at Bayero University Kano New Campus that Sadiq marketed. She had a ‘stand’ near the Faculty of Engineering. She had a lot of customers in all categories of the university community. After all, even professors love Fura. Her interaction with the university community enabled her to develop an interest in education, and she wanted to get Sadiq to attend a school and eventually a university. She did not want Sadik to follow the family herd. His father, however, wanted the child to join the family herding tradition. The mother then engaged one of her customers, a professor, to drive to the ruga and convince the father to allow the child to attend school, to which he reluctantly agreed. The mother then took over the process of educating the child.
She enrolled him in a local private primary school inside the Janguza Barracks. After he finished, she inquired which was the best high school around, and Musa Iliyasu came highly recommended. She enrolled him there. An exclusive private school. Paid for from the proceeds of her Fura business. She bought a bike for Sadik to make it easy for him to attend the school, some five kilometres from their tent. His legs could barely reach the pedals, but he was enthusiastic about learning. After school, he would go to her Fura stand, park the bike and then trample all over the BUK mega building advertising his mother’s Fura (even boldly entering the Vice-Chancellor’s office to market the Fura), all the way till 6.00 p.m. when they close ‘office’.
I interacted with Sadik for three years. He was so curious, bold, confident and always lifting books on my desk, trying to read them, asking endless questions, his eyes always darting and roving all other office. He was truly an inquisitive and intelligent child.
In 2016 I temporarily relocated my place of work to Abuja, and that was the last I saw of Sadiq. I did not fully return to Bayero University till 2022. In the intervening period, I had wistfully thought of Sadik and finally decided to find out what had happened to him when I returned. It was a massive success story of doggedness by a traditional woman.
When Sadik finished Musa Iliyasu College, he told his mother he wanted to be a pilot. She asked him to find out how much it would cost. Off he went to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, where he learned the fees could be as much as ₦7.5 million. He informed his mother, who immediately asked him to continue the process of getting admitted. She would pay the entire sum – after all, she was already a millionaire with the large herd she had. She earmarked the number of cows to sell to raise the pilot school fees. Sadik did the entrance exams but did not scale the final test. So, he was not admitted.
He then applied to BUK with his JAMB score of 201 for Computer Science but did not meet the Post-UTME requirements for the program. Again, he faced rejection. His mother initiated the process of getting him alternative university admission and was advised to take him to Al-Qalam University, a non-profit Islamic university in Katsina. He went there and inquired about the admission process and the fees. With his results, he was admitted. His mother sold two of her cows for ₦450,000 and gave him the money to pay for the school fees in Computer Science and his accommodation in Katsina. He enrolled and started his program.
When he relocated to Katsina, she sent him money every day. She eventually gave him ₦200,000, with which he started a Fura packaging business, employing his co-tenants in the house he was renting. Soon, he established a small business employing other students. Eventually, he vied for and succeeded in becoming the Vice-President of the Computer Science Students Association of the Al-Qalam branch.
Sadik became a dedicated student with a consistently high CGPA, which could eventually lead to either a good second upper or a first in Computer Science. He was eventually elected the President of the Computer Science Students of his university chapter. One day, the officers of the Association came to Kano for a function during a school break and decided to see his house, especially after he told them he lived in a ruga. They were astonished to discover he was telling the truth – their respect for his modesty raised higher.
In January 2023, I was in my office at the Faculty of Communication BUK when someone walked in. I was bent on my laptop but did notice the guest removing his shoes and coming and standing in front of my desk, waiting for a pause in my typing.
I looked up at a tall well-built young man. I immediately knew it was Sadik. At 21 years, everything about him has changed, of course, but not his dolphin smile. He told me he learnt I was asking of him and decided to come and greet me. I was so happy to see him, and it was he who related to me what I had written so far. I immediately connected him to Sunusi Ahmad Baffa Dawakin Tofa, Chairman of the Kano State chapter of the Fulfulde Development Association of Nigeria (FULDAN), of which I was a patron. They promised to come together and see how Sadik could be part of community mobilisation awareness and a role model, especially for youth. Sadiq owes his success so far to his mother.
Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu and Sadik
***
Sadik’s mother, Hajiya Hauwa Suleiman Dikko, was not an educated, entitled, privileged woman. She did not go to school. Her class was the hard knock of life. As a young girl, she missed going to school with lunchboxes and rucksacks festooned with stickers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Spiderman, Hulk, X-Men, and Fantastic Four. She did not attend a privileged landscaped school with paintings of Micky Mouse and Donald Duck on their walls. She had no driver to chauffer her to school in an airconditioned SUV. No TV to return to after school hours in a nice airconditioned living room. No iPads to play with. No Netflix to relax her hard stressful day. No extra lesson teacher (Uncle John or Auntie Funmi) to ensure she passed those horrible subjects such as Mathematics.
Her contemporaries who lived such life finished successfully from their expensive private schools (of course, no private school would allow mass failure, especially from children of the privileged) and had gatekeepers to ensure they got admission into the juiciest disciplines in the university of their choice. If at all in Nigeria – otherwise, it would be off to Ukraine (before it became too hot), some obscure countries in Eastern Europe, India, Cyprus, the UK or preferably, Malaysia.
When such contemporaries returned, they had cushy jobs waiting for them and a relatively easy path to the top. Eventually, they are celebrated as women of substance – given awards (which they don’t need) and celebrated in academic papers and opinion pieces as role models of female achievement and doggedness in a patriarchal society. I don’t mind their high-profile visibility. I just believe the accolades are wrongly placed, or at the very least, the Point of View (POV) should sweep around.
My female heroes? Those I will be celebrating today, the 2023 International Women’s Day? Let’s start with Sadik’s mother. And hundreds of others like her. I am sure you know one or two in your locality. They are women, often widowed, left alone, with little or no inheritance, and who, with the little they have, were able to provide much-appreciated services in their communities and keep a tight hold on their families. They don’t engage in endless and fruitless debates about gender identity or reproductive rights nor women’s representation in political representation and their share of hegemony. Rhetoric. Talking loud and saying nothing. As my main Man sang, “Like a dull knife / Just ain’t cutting / Just talking loud / Then saying nothing”. (James Brown, 1970).
Mainly, restauranteurs, these local women build people and impact their communities. With their business – restaurant (ƙosai, koko, tuwo, ɗanwake, wake da shinkafa, alkubus, gurasa, ƙashin rago, etc.), public transport (Keke NAPEP, buses, Acaba/Okada, Ƙurƙura), estate (properties, rental apartments, plots of land) – they are the role models who should be celebrated. They don’t feel entitled and are privileged in the peace of mind they have and the mentoring they do in their communities. They have no PAs, SAs, fierce dogs at the gates of their solar-powered villas and mansions, no frowning ‘maigad’ to intimidate and scare away panhandlers.
They have no SUVs as the cost of one could serve as capital for a whole year for their business. They don’t even have cars, despite some owning a transport business or so. They do not take their holidays in London or Dubai – they have no time for holidays as they are busy serving their communities. They marry off their daughters, not in grand style, with furniture imported from IKEA in China but from local makers – thus contributing to local economies.
So, what should be the concerns of women on International Women’s Day? For me, with a focus on Muslim Hausa women living in traditional communities, how about integrating them into the modern sector digital economy? Instead of empty rhetoric about gender representation, why don’t we focus on enabling them to acquire skills such as mobile phone repairs and POS services – in the comfort and safety of their homes? Many women are now engaged with mobile phones and online trading and payments. Muslim Hausa women feel unsafe in approaching service centres where clusters of men provide these services. Empowering them to be skilled in digital knowledge in the lungu and saƙo (alleyways) of our communities works better than hot-air rhetoric and genuinely can make a difference.
On this day, I, therefore, award accolades to Sadik’s mother, Hajiya Mai Ƙashin Rago Fagge (with a whole street named after her), and countless others whom I am sure Jaafar Jaafar knows more. They are truly women of substance.
Today, being International Women’s Day, please locate any in your community, go right up to her and appreciate her. Celebrate her achievements and her silent but visible impact in the community as the REAL woman of substance.
PS: Some have asked about Sadik’s whereabouts. He is in his final year at Al-Qalam, Katsina, Computer Science, and from his results so far, he is heading towards either a First Class or a very good Second Upper.
Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu can be contacted via auadamu@yahoo.com.
Bashir Ahmad, the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital Communication, has disclosed that the Deputy Governor of Kano State and Gubernatorial Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr Nasir Yusuf Gawuna, pledged to grant autonomy to local governments in Kano State if elected governor.
Ahmad stated this in a tweet on his verified Twitter handle on Thursday.
According to Ahmad, this is one of the many reasons why Kano electorates should vote for Gawuna. He noted that Gawuna would govern and operate differently.
“Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, the Kano State APC Gubernatorial Candidate, has pledge [sic] to give local governments in the State autonomy to operate if elected as Governor. This is one of many reasons why we will vote for Gawuna as our next governor, he will govern and operate differently.” He tweeted.
A young man from Jigawa state has embarked on backward trekking from Gwaram in Jigawa State to Sumaila town in Kano state, to celebrate the election victory of Honorable Kawu Sumaila.
The young man whom Kawu Sumaila met on the road explained that he was doing this backward trekking because almost every style of trekking has already been done, so he decided to do his own.
Even though Sumaila asked him to go back home since they met on the road, the young man insisted that he would not go back, because he had sworn to do it.
On arriving, the senator gave him a token, and he promised him a slot to go on Hajj to Makkah, because of this manly effort that he took upon himself to travel a long in a backward manner to congratulate the senator.
Professor Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai, Returning Officer of the Tudun Wada/ Doguwa House of Representatives Election, has admitted to declaring the election results under duress.
The Professor made this known in a voluntary statement dated February 28, 2023.
According to Professor Yakasai, his life and that of other INEC officials in his company were threatened, and he was afraid he would lose his life. He added that the collation area was completely under siege by hoodlums, and he was ordered to declare the results within an hour.
“I served as the Returning Officer for the 2023 Tudun Wada/ Doguwa House of Representatives Election, whose Result was declared by me on the 26th February, 2023. However, I will want to testify that the declaration I made was under duress for fear of losing my life and other INEC officials who were with me. ” He wrote in the statement.
Prof. Yakasai’s statement
He further stated that the situation made it impossible for him to act in accordance with the extant provisions of the Electoral Act.
On his reason for the disclosure, Professor Yakasai said he is testifying with the hope that necessary actions be taken to remedy the situation. However, Professor Yakasai refused to disclose whose bidding he was coerced to carry out then.
INEC has already declined to issue a Certificate of Return to Mr Doguwa, the Majority Leader at the outgoing National Assembly, for the same reason. A court in Kano granted the embattled lawmaker bail after being arrested for murder charges last week.
Democracy can be likened to a human being in terms of characteristics and functions. A person is rendered incapacitated by the amputation of his limbs or by the removal of his eyes or ears. Using violence, buying votes, and bribing electoral officers and security personnel to rig elections not only render the democracy incapacitated but also lifeless. An election is the most sacred aspect of democracy that must be protected against any form of interference from within or outside the commission responsible for conducting elections, state government, national government or any foreign state.
It is worrisome how Kano State, one of the fast-developing and economically vibrant states in Northern Nigeria, is facing severe attacks from the antagonists of democracy. It could be recalled how the 2019 Governorship Election in the state was characterised by violence, intimidation, disenfranchisement, arson, and killing and injuring of voters. This prompted my article “Democracy Bleeds in Kano”, published in Daily Trust on 4th October 2019. Thanks to CP Wakil (nicknamed Singham) for standing firmly in controlling the terrible political tragedy of that year. Sadly, in the Presidential and National Assembly Elections held on 25th February 2023, a similar premeditated political tragedy occurred in some Local Government Areas of Kano State. A member representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada in the Green Chamber, Ado Alhassan Doguwa, allegedly shot innocent citizens and ordered his thugs to set on fire a building with people inside.
The Governorship Election coming on 11th March 2023 is feared to be unfree from grave challenges, especially as many issues have continued to unfold since last week. Some of these issues are mentioned below. A few days ago, the Nigerian Police Force, State Headquarters, Bompai, Kano State, released a piece of information about how it discovered a plot by some politicians to disrupt the forthcoming election using political thugs. There is a serious allegation against some politicians hiring thugs even from outside Kano to disrupt the electoral process. One may find it difficult to disagree with the allegation given the recent happenings in the state’s political space. Two Local Governments Areas that experienced this violence last week are Tudun Wada and Takai.
What raises more questions about the 11th March Election are the movements of some trucks seen across the state in the last few days, carrying a lot of food commodities and clothing materials suspected to be distributed to the masses in exchange for their votes. As alleged by some observers, those food commodities and clothing materials had not been seen during the Covid-19 predicament—a time when people direly needed assistance. Generally, Nigeria is battling abject poverty, sending many people hungry. As such, the unfortunate situation presents a golden opportunity for politicians. Vote buying, either by money or offer of any commodity, is a severe attack on democracy that any well-meaning citizen cannot oversee.
Some political parties, especially from the opposition, have cried out a plot by the ruling party in the state to buy the conscience of INEC’s staff and the security personnel, which, if found to be true, will be highly condemnable, immoral and illegal.
I am, therefore, using this opportunity to call on the Federal Government, the Nigeria Police Force, the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Kano State Government to rise to the occasion and prevent the occurrence of the 2019 political tragedy in Kano and also investigate the above allegations with a view of ensuring a free and fair election. While human beings can cheat one another, they can never cheat history.
I am also calling domestic and international election observers to be extra observant in the Kano 11th March election. Political parties and the media have a massive role in creating awareness and enlightening the masses, especially in rural areas, about the catastrophic consequences of vote buying. Security personnel and INEC’s staff should remember that there is a life after death and that one must reap what he sowed. The masses must display boldness throughout the stages of the election. They must quickly report suspicious activities by anyone to the appropriate authority. I pray that Kano State and Nigeria will have peaceful, free, and fair elections on 11th March 2023.
The New Nigerian People’s Party, NNPP, has reveal plans by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to rig the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Kano State.
Dr Baffa Abdullahi Bichi, an NNPP cheiftain, made the allegations in a press conference on Monday.
According to Mr Bichi, Plans are underway for the repetition of the 2019 massive rigging of the APC by the Ganduje’s led administration.
Mr Bichi said, as defeat and rejection stare the APC in the face, the Ganduje’s led government is fervently plotting to thwart the will of Kano people.
Mr Bichi alleged that the government is hiring thugs and hunters from Cameroon and Bauchi to distrupt the electoral Process. He also said that the government in collaboration with INEC plan to cause unnecessary delay in polling units where the APC can not win. He added that it is part of their strategy to invade collation centers.
One thing that is exciting about democracy is its being internally endowed with an inbuilt system that avails citizens with an automatic power to punish or reward their benefactors or tormentors every four years. Politically, many causative factors bring down elected officials or traditional leaders from their seats or rob away their sceptres.
In a democratic setting, nothing so precarious leads to the downfall, even more, dangerous than powerful political opposition than the collective power of protest votes. Protest votes are votes cast by various aggrieved members among frustrated citizens dissatisfied with the incumbent government and determined to cast their votes to penalise the leaders they perceive as incompetent or self-serving. In the last US election, former president Donald Trump and his fanatics were made to understand the power of protest votes. Here in Nigeria, ex-president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had his taste in 2015.
With less than a week left for the gubernatorial election, the Kano political thunderstorms have gathered. Kano has various groups of people that have grown dissatisfied and overly tired of the APC government under Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and his deputy, Malam Nasiru Gawuna. These aggrieved groups include students, Adaidaita-Sahu (tricyclists) riders, Kwari and Kofar Wambai markets traders, civil servants, and many others. These people consider voting for the current APC gubernatorial candidate and his deputy as a celebration and incentivisation of their unwanted act that led to the worst rerun election in the history of Kano polity.
That infamous rerun election has become a memory that still haunts us and deprives the Kano people of peace, especially with the daily sight of thugs taking over localities and the government seemingly unflustered. Therefore, the people seem to bear an implacable feeling of revenge towards the APC with their most potent weapon at the moment— PVC. This might be glad tidings for the NNPP and its boss, Dr Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, who fields the same gubernatorial candidate, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, alias Abba Gida-Gida.
Abba Gida-Gida won the previous election with an unbeatable lead before it was dramatically declared inconclusive, which eventually changed the course of his victory. The kinds of people who still feel shortchanged by the results of the rerun election have come from diverse social statuses among the good people of Kano.
First, the collective electorate versus the indelible scar of “Inconclusive”: Looking at his wide popularity and acceptance across the teeming population of the state, especially among the youth, nothing was surprising in Abba’s victory in the 2019 gubernatorial election. The electorate toiled and moiled hard all day from dawn to dusk to ensure their favourite candidate emerged victorious. But inadvertently, some unscrupulous thugs led by the current deputy governor, the APC gubernatorial candidate of the ruling party, Malam Nasiru Gawuna and his deputy gubernatorial candidate, Murtala Sule Garo, disrupted the whole scene, which led to the worst rerun in our living memories.
The drama leading to the rerun is an ignominious act that still haunts our psyche and traumatises our brains. That utter embarrassment has planted an undying seed of revenge in the hearts of the Kano people for the upcoming election, irrespective of who is fielded as the APC candidate. The rerun had exposed the deeply insatiable lust for power at all costs. What else can explain the action of someone who hired the services of vampiric thugs that were so thirty of the blood of innocent voters just to ensure the will of the majority was ruthlessly robbed with not an atom of compassion?
Today, such social, psychological and physical casualties of the sham called election are still alive, hale and hearty and fully ready for revenge. People living at Gama ward, in particular, and places affected by the consequences of the terrible rerun need no more explanation of the horrors they saw with their own eyes.
Second, the Kano APC government versus scholars: Kwankwaso’s government had sponsored some brilliant Kano indigenes who went abroad to study different courses for the good of the state and the nation to add more value and human resources for the good of the general public. Some of these students who could not finish their studies during Kwankwaso’s reign needed registration and upkeep allowance to continue their studies during the outgoing Ganduje’s reign. But for the sake of bitter politics, these students were wholly ostracised despite being Kano indigenes who were abroad to study and not for tourism. These people are now ready for the 11th March in the eleventh hour to take their revenge.
Third, the Kano APC-led government versus the Kano state Students at Higher Institutions: Kano state students studying at various institutions of learning across the country have already come to terms with the deafening silence of the Kano state government that no longer gives them their meagre annual scholarship which amounts to nothing but a token of concern and appreciation of their struggle to study and liberate themselves from the darkness of ignorance. From the onset, it began with a wicked issuance of useless award letters; then, it metamorphosed to sample payment before gradually morphing into total non-payment of the scholarship. Therefore, these students are neither blind nor deaf. However, their anger is reserved and will be vented on election day.
Fourth, during Kwankwaso’s and Shekarau’s eras, Kano indigenes who successfully studied bachelor’s of Law were sponsored to attend Law School. That gesture helped many Law graduates from poor economic backgrounds realise their dreams of being called to the bar. But for this humanitarian service rendered by these two governors, many of them I know of would not have been officially addressed as barristers or learned colleagues.
The exorbitant fee for Law School has already risen, leaving many Law graduates roaming the streets with their hope dashed. But based on what I see from the lawyer-cum-activist, Abba Hikima, popularly known as ‘Champion of the Downtrodden”, he pledges to lend his voice to the cause to take those people whose hopes were dashed by this APC-led government. Of course, it is not incumbent upon the government to do that, but it’s something very laudable that might help bridge the wide gap between the haves and the have-nots in the state.
In addition, this act places Kano students in an advantageous position ahead of many students who might not benefit from the same gesture in their states. For the war to save the potential barristers and the stranded Law graduates left in limbo due to their financial status, they will express their anger through their PVCs.
Auwal Umar wrote from Kano. He can be contacted via auwaluumar9@gmail.com.
According to an eyewitness who was on the scene of the election, hundreds of thugs entered the Gaya town polling unit and attacked everyone who was around.
A victim of the attack narrated that “the thugs attacked us in the process of collating results in Gamarya Ward, Gaya. I had to escape through the window into the wild bush to save my life.
Thanks to Allah, I am now safely in Gaya town. It was really a terrible experience.”
Reports indicate that the Gamarya ward’s counsellor led the thugs together with some prominent politicians of the ward to disrupt the peaceful process of the collation.
The Daily Reality learnt that some people were reported to be severely injured and maimed while many others scampered and lost their valuables.
The National Universities Commission ( NUC), has approved a new university for Kano State.
Consequent of the approval, Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso is now a university of education.
On Tuesday in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abubakar A. Rasheed, presented the letter of recognition of the institution to Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje .
Ganduje said, the new university was part of his administration’s efforts to meet the growing demand for education in the state.
According to him, the university, which is the third under Kano State, has 116 lecturers with PhDs.
