Zamfara blames Matawalle for 93 ‘stranded’ students in Cyprus
06 November 2024 |
3:07 am
The Zamfara State government has accused the immediate past governor and current Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, of sending 93 students to Cyprus International University without proper financial support and documentation.
The Zamfara State government has accused the immediate past governor and current Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, of sending 93 students to Cyprus International University without proper financial support and documentation. It claimed that the students’ tuition, accommodation and feeding allowances were not paid, thereby exposing them to hardship.
The government raised the concern two days after the Zamfara Chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Nurudeen Salisu, raised a similar concern over the students’ abandonment.
Salisu lamented that the young scholars, embarked on an academic journey in 2020, to acquire knowledge vital to the state’s future, but regrettably, found themselves caught in a quagmire of humiliation and academic disruptions.
Speaking yesterday at a press conference in Abuja, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Wadatau Madawaki, blamed the crisis on the Matawalle administration.
He noted that right from the beginning, there was no documentary evidence showing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the university and the previous administration, saying the students were simply left at the mercy of the university authorities in Cyprus.
Madawaki, however, said the state government had paid some money as part payment pending the reconciliation of accounts. He explained that the scholarship from the beginning was fraught with “dishonesty and outright selfishness, as there is no documentary evidence of any type showing a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the university and the previous administration that sponsored the students.”
According to him, available records “revealed that a consultant was hired, who negotiated between the previous administration and the university, processed admissions and travelling documents for the students, and delivered them to the university authority.” He said the negotiation had the arrangement that the students would be in a system that is tagged, “Full package.”
The commissioner continued: “In that arrangement, the students’ accommodation and feeding were handed over to the university authority, and whether the students ate a meal or not for whatever reason, they will be charged by the school authority as having eaten. That was a very unfair arrangement that has formed part of the difficulties faced by the students.
‘From the year 2022, the previous administration of Governor Bello Matawalle abdicated its responsibilities of funding the students’ studies at the Cyprus International University as tuition fees, accommodation and feeding allowances were not paid to the university authorities, thereby exposing the students to hardships and difficult conditions. That by extension caused the accumulation of huge debt by the previous administration, which continued up to the end of its lifespan on Monday, May 29, 2023.”
He also accused the university authorities of presenting a “debt of tuition fees being owed by the government even when they knew they had stopped the students from attending lectures for almost one year.”
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The Zamfara State government has accused the immediate past governor and current Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, of sending 93 students to Cyprus International University without proper financial support and documentation.
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