Open letter to Governor Nasir el-Rufa’i

Let me use this medium to express my displeasure over to the issue of Kaduna State University (KASU) Medical students, and the proposed university teaching hospital, namely, Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital. The Kaduna state university medical students were suspended about 4 to 5 years ago, as a result of their department’s failure to meet the […]

Let me use this medium to express my displeasure over to the issue of Kaduna State University (KASU) Medical students, and the proposed university teaching hospital, namely, Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital.
The Kaduna state university medical students were suspended about 4 to 5 years ago, as a result of their department’s failure to meet the National Universities Commission (NUC) criteria. Because one of the benchmarks before a university commence running medical courses is, the institution must have a teaching hospital, which KASU failed to comply with. They went ahead and established a medical department without a teaching hospital. After the suspension of the students, the university authority refused to give the students alternative. The institution failed to neither change the students’ course nor transfer them to another institution.
Recall that a similar scenario happened to engineering students in the University of Abuja, but the school authority change course for the affected students, and some of the students were transferred to another university in absence of relevant course.
The state government under Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero led-administration, took 29 students out of the suspended ones to study medicine in Uganda, in the name of oversea scholarship scheme. While the remaining suspended students, those who didn’t have godfathers, were isolated from the scholarship scheme, thus stagnating their academic pursuit. The affected students have conducted series of protests to draw the attention of the state government but to no avail.
To my greatest surprise, even the university which the immediate past government of Kaduna state enrolled the 29 students in Uganda, was established in 2004 the same year KASU was established.
Your Excellency sir, the overwhelming support which you got from the people of Kaduna state during the elections, was given to you because people strongly believe in your sense of judgment and fairness, and with full confidence that you are the one who would save our beloved state, especially at this era of instability.
But quiet unfortunate and pitiful, the state of Emergency which you imposed in education sector seem not to reflect in Kaduna State University, in order to bring the end of this pitiful story.
Sir, as a matter of urgency, these ordinary students, are in urgent need of your kind consideration.
Jabir T Usman, [email protected]