Mourning Kano science students

Tuesday May 3, 2016 was a sorrowful and traumatic day for Kano state government as well as the entire people of Kano state.  This followed the tragic death of some Kano state secondary school students who lost their lives along with their driver when the vehicle in which they were traveling had an accident along Oyo-Iroko road, Ibadan, Oyo state. The 16 students and their teachers in the vehicle were returning to Kano from Lagos where they represented Kano state in a National Quiz Competition for science secondary schools. Reports in the media indicate that the bus conveying the students had a tire burst and the driver consequently lost control; resulting in the accident.
Seven of the students were said to have died on the spot while one out the nine rescued from the accident scene was said to have died few hours after arriving at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. The students who died in the accident were said to have come from Unity School Karaye and Kano Kapital School. Corpses of the deceased students and that of the driver arrived Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, aboard Azman aircraft. The corpses were received by state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, in company of parents and relations of the deceased students. The funeral prayer (janaza) was conducted for the corpses on Thursday May 5, 2016 at the Emir’s palace in Kano. Governor Abdullahi Ganduje as well as members of the State Executive Council attended the funeral.
Although no human factor could ever change the course of destiny, many people wondered at why the students were not deemed fit to travel to and fro Lagos by air to participate in the competition. As customary in some Nigerian cultures, it is when a man is dead that the privileges he was denied (including traveling by air) will be provided; sometimes so colourfully. This insinuation was however deflated when revelations later emerged that funds were made available for the students to have traveled by air. Parents of the deceased students have reportedly accused the management of the Kano State Secondary Education Board (KNSEB) of diverting money meant for the students’ flight ticket; opting instead for road transport. If a return ticket (Kano-Lagos-Kano) which, for example, sells for about N35, 000 with aero contractors, it should not have cost the KNSEB more than N700, 000 to provide air tickets for the state contingent to the competition even if it had comprised of 20 persons including their teachers.
Kano state government has a responsibility to investigate the claims of the bereaved parents. Since it involves human lives, it would be irresponsible of the Kano state government not to probe the allegation. If the accusations made by the parents of the deceased students against KNSEB are confirmed to be speculative, the subsequent questions to ask should include: why were funds not provided for students to travel to and fro Lagos by air? Or was the cost of the air tickets too burdensome for a state government that recently donated N10 million to Federal University Dutse to bear? N700, 000 is less than ten percent of what the state government found convenient to donate to a federal university which it has no obligation to fund.
If, on the other hand, the allegation of fund diversion is ascertained to be true as reported, Kano state government yet has a duty to ensure that those behind it are prosecuted accordingly. Any government official found guilty of diverting the air ticket funds should be seen to have little or no value for the lives of the students which should have been considered precious enough to be protected. Precious because this particular set of students stand out intellectually among tens or hundreds of thousands of Kano state secondary school students. Their exceptional performance in school put them on the same podium with anyone representing Kano state either as sportsman or woman, artiste, or even diplomat.
The evil of any government official whose greed for embezzling public funds forced the students to travel over a distance of 1,150 kilometers from Kano to Lagos, which by Federal Road Safety Corps’ speed limit should not last less than 11 hours of sitting in a vehicle can only be described as wickedness without match. Besides, the students were required to engage in a brain-tasking exercise after such long hours of traveling by road. This shows how little the KNSEB appreciates knowledge and scholarship. Those guilty of misappropriating the air ticket funds should not be less culpable than a person who diverts food items meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). If the allegations are actually discovered to be true, this writer considers the air ticket scammers as sinful as those who diverted funds meant for the purchase of arms to fight insurgents, and therefore, should be tried and sanctioned according to law.
No matter what Kano state government has offered or will further offer to the bereaved parents as compensation, such is never worth the lives of the students just as the compensation can never bring the students back to life. Nonetheless, the names of the students deserve to be immortalized by the state government. There are many ways by which te state government could do that. While we pray that Allah (SWT) makes Al-Jannah the final abode of the students, we also pray that He grants their parents the fortitude to bear the loss, amin.