By Salisu Lawal Kerau
In what can best be described as “Putting a square peg in a square hole” the Government of Malam Dikko Ummaru Radda’s appointment of Malam Aminu Salisu, PhD, as the Executive Secretary of Katsina State Scholarship Board, depicts that popular adage.
Taking into cognizance of the vast experience of Dr. Aminu Salisu, in academia as well as being a University Don and in other fields of human endeavour, the management of the affairs of Katsina State students may not in any way be a herculean task of any sort to him.
The swift and successful accomplishments within the shortest possible time recorded at Katsina State Scholarship Board by the new Executive Secretary, may not be a surprise to any one, it is indeed most expected.
The new Executive Secretary came with the zeal and enthusiasm to serve the State, as attested to by being the first appointee amongst his Colleagues to report to his place of appointment the next day the appointments were announced, the eve of festive period of “Eidul Adha” notwithstanding.
At inception, Dr. Aminu Salisu met with the members of staff to familiarize with them and made a feasibility study of the immediate needs of the board that gave him an insight of what should be his priority.
The first idea conceived was the need to provide the board with a befitting place of worship, where the construction of a Mosque immediately began and completed.
As the world trend and developments now go with internet facilities, the board now enjoys a state of the art internet connectivity that will, in no small measure facilitate the board’s operations to meet maximum output and ensure productivity towards achieving the set objectives. This is the second strive made by the new Executive Secretary.
The next accomplishment that has the sole aim of ensuring self reliance among the Students of Katsina State was the establishment of skill acquisition center, first of its kind, in the history of the board. The idea was to train some students to acquire some skills that will help them to engage in one kind of trade or the other to address idleness and other undesirable tendencies.
The office infrastructure and the general office environment is wearing a new look, the office of the Executive Secretary and other offices attached to it are now having a facelift as they have all been renovated. The renovation of other office structures will soon be effected.
The main gate which is one of the important image making symbol of the board was relocated to a strategic position to directly face the main road for the general public’s easy recognition and accessibility to the board.
Scholarship award interview is one of the primary and routine duties of the board, to this end, within the period under review a total of 36,000 Katsina State Students were interviewed across 126 institutions of higher learning in and outside the Country.
In the area of staff welfare, the Executive Secretary established a restaurant for the Staff comfort.
Another important feat attained was the introduction of “Katsina State Award of Academic Excellence” for students with high cumulative grade points (CGP) 4.5 and above. This is aimed at motivating and rewarding hardworking students as well as encouraging competition amongst students of tertiary institutions in the State.
In his magnanimity as the officer in Chief of the affairs of Katsina State Students, the Executive Secretary graciously and free of charge transported about 900 students of various institutions within Katsina metropolis to their respective schools to ease their transportation cost as a result of hardships occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy.
The amount of Scholarship allowance paid to Students nowadays is not in any way commensurate with current economic reality. In this vein, the Executive Secretary is trying to make a convincing proposal to the Government for an upward review of 100% of scholarship allowances for Students.
The board has recently received an approval of the sum of six hundred and forty million six hundred and forty eight thousand five hundred and forty six naira (N640,648,546:00) as outstanding money for disbursement as scholarship allowance for fresh Students of 2020/2021and continuing students of 2021/2022 academic session.
The Governor has also approved funds for the conduct of scholarship award interview for 2022/2023.
In order to ease transportation of the officials of the board to various scholarship centers across the country, the Executive Secretary repaired seven (7) vehicles and put them in good shape ready for the job.
Proper official measures were taken to encourage staff attendance and punctuality.
All the aforementioned accomplishments were recorded within a period of 65 days of assuming office of the Executive Secretary, Dr. Aminu Salisu Tsauri. We are certain, that the board will continue to witness a number of transformations for the achievement of its set objectives.
We wish the Executive Secretary and the board a successful tenure of office.
