Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) says he has had to sell some of his properties to provide scholarships for students in Kano State, Nigeria and Africa.
Kwankwaso disclosed this on Monday at a colloquium organised in his honour by the Kwankwasiyya Movement in collaboration with Scholars Assembly and other Kwankwasiyya organizations in Abuja.
Kwankwanso added that after he left office as governor, he sold off things he did not need to provide students with scholarships.
“The scholarship beneficiaries, especially the three thousand of them who benefited in four years, I’m so happy and very proud of all of you. Many of them wanted to come.
“I’m happy to say that in the 1999 election in Kano, we had no governor, no minister, no serving or former member. We had just these young men and women and we were able to win our election for the governorship.
“And that was why I was encouraged to create the scholarship scheme for our young men and women. When we advertise in 2019, believing that there are few people who are first class, we exhausted them in Kano. Second class upper we exhausted them. We were on two to second class lower levels when I left government in 2015 and that is one.
“We had over three thousand of them going to 14 countries across the world. I’m also happy that we sponsored students in Nigeria private universities in Nigerias. More than 412 benefited and over 3000 were sent abroad. They are in different sets all sponsored by the Kwankwasiyya foundation,” Kwankwanso said.
“I felt the best investment for any politician is education because I was trained in Kano, in northern Nigeria. And Nigeria can only grow if we have educated people. When I was governor, we were able to feed our children in primary schools, return them to school.
“Today, they have an association of those who collected our uniforms in primary schools. They are in millions,” I thank all my brothers and sisters, my friends across the countrymen who supported the foundation,” Kwankwanso said.
President, Kwankwasiyya Scholars and Kwankwasiyya Development, Dr Yusuf Ibrahim Kofarmata, said the NNPP presidential candidate’s altruistic efforts to improve the lives of the downtrodden are making incomparable contributions that will live on in history and do much to immortalize his place in Nigeria.
“You have already set yourself apart from the selfish, demagogic politicians, thanks to each contribution. We hope that in a few months, Nigeria will be porous and peaceful under your leadership as the most admired political figure in Kano, the North and Nigeria as a whole.”