Kaduna students give state government ultimatum over scholarship

The National Association of Kaduna State Students (NAKASS) has given the Kaduna state government 21 days to pay its members their 3 years scholarship allowances or have the state’s institutions shut down.

Speaking at a news briefing held in Kaduna, the Secretary General of the association, Jeremiah Gwaza, said if the state government fails to pay them what is due to them as scholarship before the ultimatum expires the students would be left with no option but to do as they promised.

The students said they are studying under intense frustration leading to immense depression since the goverment stopped paying the scholarship.

Part of the students’ demands as presented by the Secretary General includes immediate reversal of the new scholarship scheme because it’s very unrealistic.

“It has been three (3) academic sessions now without a penny from the state government to help Kaduna State Students augment the high cost of living in most school environment around the country.

“This have brought a perilous experience to a lot of students, as a result of this ordeal over 73,632 students are subjected to various forms of hardship and challenges ranging from tuition fees which has led to deferment of sessions, Semester and in some cases even withdrawal,” he said.

The association also said not paying the students’ scholarship as reflected in the state appropriation bill for 3 years made them to demand for the payment in arrears the old rate for the three sessions.

“We also demand the refund 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.

“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 until our demands are met,” he said.

Effort to get the response of the state government was not successful as at the time of filing this report.