Kano State government says Kwankwaso deposited $1m in Ukraine when he was governor

KANO State government has claimed that it has traced $1m belonging to former governor and 2019 presidential aspirant Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso to Ukraine pointing out that the money was paid to a university where no student from the state was studying.

Currently the lawmaker representing Kano Central Senatorial District, Senator Kwankwaso was Kano State governor twice between 2009 and 2003 and later on between 2011 and 2015. After leaving office, Senator Kwankwaso went into the senate, handing over the Kano State governorship to his former deputy Abdullahi Ganduje both over recent months, the two of them have fallen out as the incumbent governor is backing President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term.

Yesterday, Dr Hussaini Jarma, Governor Ganduje's senior special assistant on higher education, revealed that Senator Kwankwaso paid the $1m to a university in the Ukraine while he was governor despite the fact that no Kano State student was enrolled there. Dropping the bombshell during the inauguration of the Kano State Scholarship Disbursement Committee, Dr Jarma said the questionable payment was made by Senator Kwankwaso as part of his foreign scholarship programme.

Governor Ganduje said: “Investigations reveals that a sum of $1,304,618 was abandoned in one university in Ukraine, when the sum was taken there during the last administration in the state. No student was sent to the university at all, the money was sent unattended and un-utilised but we said business should not be as usual anymore.”

At the event, Governor Ganduje also lampooned Senator Kwankwaso for incurring debts of over N4bn with his foreign scholarship programme which he said was planned to fail. He added that while other states withdrew their students from foreign universities due to exorbitant costs, Kano managed to allow its students to proceed with their education at such universities despite the huge cost.

“When we came in we were told that the past administration paid everything but when we conducted an investigation we came to realise that, that statement was not true” The programme was not planned in accordance with organised educational system and the arrangement was poorly done in such a way that it was not planned to succeed.

“The programme was deliberately planned to fail. One can question the wisdom behind sending our students to study areas like economics, for example and other similar courses while we can have better universities that run the courses within the country. Other states withdrew their students back home but we, in Kano said since it was an agreement reached between the state and those universities, we decided to continue under harsh economic conditions," Governor Ganduje added.

Governor Ganduje, said his administration inherited 1,130 foreign students from Senator Kwankwaso’s government who were sent to various universities in China, India, Cyprus, Malaysia, Uganda, Egypt, Sudan and Niger Republic. He added that the state also domestic private universities like Crescent University, Abeokuta, American University of Nigeria and Al-Qalam University, over N763m.