The Governor of Niger State, Babangida Mu’azu Aliyu has raised the alarm that 50 ghost schools have been discovered on the nominal roll of the state.
Governor Aliyu raised the alarm at the weekly State Executive Council Meeting at the Government House, Minna, as he also lamented that the ghost schools were discovered on the lists of the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, and the state Ministry of Education.
Aliyu noted that the schools, which could not be located on ground anywhere in the state, must have gulped several millions of naira on monthly basis, as they had been used to siphon money from the state coffers.
“Imagine 50 ghost schools. At least in each of the schools, there would not have been less than 10 teachers on the payroll. That would amount to 500 teachers. Imagine the salaries and allowances of ghost teachers in such ghost schools, the amount would have been monumental,”he stated.
The governor said that in addition to the 50 ghost schools, the governor disclosed that he had also been briefed cases of about15 schools in Mashegu Local Government Area of the state which had only one Arabic teacher each.
The governor blamed the Agriculture Commissioner for not briefing him on the level of decadence in Mashrgu schools, even when Matane was the Head of Service.
Prior to the start of the meeting whenjournalists were excused, the Commissioner for Agriculture, who was the immediate past Head of Service, (HoS), Ibrahim Ahmed Matane, decried the level of infrastructural decay in the education sector in the local government.
Last year, Governor Aliyu had taken unscheduled visits to some Primary schools in Minna city to ascertain the level of dilapidation in such schools.
The governor, after the visits, lamented the deplorable state of the schools visited, describing them as “eye sores.”