By: Joy Odor/Kaduna
The National Secretary General of the National Association of Kaduna State Students (NAKASS), Comrade Jermaine Gwaza has issued 21 days ultimatum to Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai over the non-payment of scholarships for 50,000 students of tertiary institution for three academic sessions.
According to him, the ultimatum which ends 1st of November 2018, if Governor El-Rufai refused to meet its demand they will not hesitate to take action.
Comrade Gwaza who spoke on behalf of the Association while addressing a press conference over the non-payment of scholarship on Thursday at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kaduna State Council Secretariat, the National Secretary General said failure to do so, they would without compromise shut down the three zones in the state all over until their needs are met.
They Association also demanded for the immediate reversal of the new scholarship scheme as it all but a bunch of cake in the middle of nowhere in other words very unrealistic.
“For not paying the student scholarship as reflected in the state appropriation bill for 3 years, we want to believe you have intentions to which is why We demand for the payment in arrears of our old Scholarship Bursaries for those three Sessions.
“We also refund demand the of 500 naira paid to the scholarship Board by almost 50,000 students to purchase scholarship forms which was never granted, payment should be made to their personal accounts as we all know some of them have graduated and others even are no more.
“In the light of the above, we are giving the state government an ultimatum of 21 days (which ends on Thursday 1st November. 2018) to meet our demands as failure to do so, we shall, without compromise shutdown the 3 zones in the state ubiquitously until our needs are met, this is not a promise, it is our decision.
“We must understand that Scholarship has played a salient role in making this country, has it has impacted meaningfully to its development from colonial era till date, as a matter of fact it help in giving birth to most of our Nationalist who fought for the independence of this great Nation and that we strongly hold at heart.
It’s no longer a news that we all know Scholarship was a major concern to our founding fathers prior to independence and even after, as they insisted strongly on it, in fact we still hear old folks speak of how wonderful it was for them those days, it was this same scholarship our Governor enjoyed in the 70’s as well, it’s not in any human to deny fellow humans whatever privilege one enjoys such as scholarship.
”This was the leadership we all had very high expectations for as students in the aspect of scholarship but to our disappointment, since the inception of his administration every appropriation bill had an allocation for scholarship but no payment was ever recorded made to local students which has led to the lugubrious hardship among our students especially Orphans, those from less privilege homes, those whose parents were retrench from the state civil service by his administration, those whose parents are retirees and the list goes on.
“Lastly it is with great displeasure we bring to the notice of the general public the sudden disappearance of visiting lecturers in state own institutions which has now complicated things as we see shortage of man power in Institutions around the state, which is greatly affecting most of us students schooling in those institutions, for God sake this is the center of learning!
“It is so pathetic, we are tired of these agonizing situations and we cannot take it anymore! Note NAKASS has exhausted every means possible to dialogue with every relevant agency over this set issue for years now but to no avail as they keep giving stories every time an approach is made to resolve the set matter” they lamented.
