The executive secretary Borno State Scholarship Board, Bala Isa, has revealed that faking of admissions, indigeneship as well as declining of scholarships in preference to money are parts of the reason the state government pays scholarship fees, accommodation and feeding allowances for its indigenous students on study abroad directly to the institutions of the benefiting students.
Isa who made the revelation in an exclusive interview with our correspondent yesterday in Maiduguri, added that in the case of graduating law students from universities who are seeking admissions into the Nigerian Law School (NLS), the state government usually allow the prospective candidates to apply to the Law school and make the necessary registration, after which the money they spent would be refunded to them on receipt of their payment slips by the government.
The scholarship board secretary said government adopted this measure on discovering that some of the students whose tuition fees were paid directly to their accounts do not turn up for their studies, while some of them who are not even indigenes of the state applied for the scholarship to the Law School, received the registration fees from the state and still go to their state of origin to apply and get another payment.
He said some other students who are still having issues with some courses in their institutions during graduation do fake Law School admission to apply for the scholarship to defraud the government.
Some prospective applicants to the Law School from the University of Maiduguri have however appealed to the Borno State government to reconsider its decision on the registration before payment, saying that if such is not reversed, many of them would miss the opportunity to make it to the law school in the ongoing admission based on the biting economic hardship.
One of the graduating students from the University of Maiduguri who spoke on the condition of anonymity told our correspondent that the major challenge he is facing now is that his parents could not afford the registration fee for the law school, adding that since they were sacked from their hometown by Boko Haram terrorists, the parents have been struggling to cater for the family needs amid biting economic crisis.
However, making further clarifications on government’s stance on the scholarship, the scholarship board executive secretary said, “Why we always want students to register for the law school before we pay them is because sometimes, we pay students and at the end, they will not go for the registration, but keep the money to themselves.
“In the case of scholarships to foreign institutions, there are some of them who government will secure their admission to the foreign institutions, but the moment they discover that the scholarship fund will not go to their direct (personal) account, they will decline to show up for the studies. Even the state scholarship that we secured in some of the foreign universities, there were many that declined the admission because they felt that the money would not be paid to their account.
“So, what they want is the money. If government pays their tuition fees directly to the foreign institutions, they will not even show up for studies. Some of them said they want money to run a business instead of the scholarship. So, this is why we pay directly into the foreign institutions’ accounts for the scholarships.
“The institutions have to provide feeding and accommodation for the students; we don’t allow them to stay outside the institutions. We signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cover all these,” said Isa.
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