The Kwara State Government in North Central Nigeria has commenced its free transport palliatives for students and staff of some tertiary institutions as part of measures to cushion the effects of fuel and currency scarcity in the state.
The government had last Thursday announced plans to make available buses at the designated motor parks to convey the students and staff along specific routes down to their campuses.
The Special Assistant to the Governor on Students Affairs, Bello Mubarak, who supervised the exercise across the designated motor parks in Ilorin, said the free bus ride was considered necessary by the government to ease the suffering of students of the affected campuses amid the difficulty imposed by the scarcity of fuel.
He said the Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq after receiving complaints from the students’ unions’ leaders, deemed it fit to come to their aid by conveying them to campuses free of charge.
“As you can see, students are getting into the buses to go to schools for their daily studies. Some of them are having exams including the post UTME. The Executive Governor of Kwara State, in his magnanimity, gave a directive for free bus ride from various areas to campuses, to alleviate the suffering of students and staff of those schools, due to the scarcity of fuel and cash.
“The days to carry out the exercise will continue as long as the directive lapses. We don’t have a directive to stop it any time soon. We will continue as it is. It is cost-free for the students and staff of those schools.“
The Senior Special Assistant on Transport (Central), Orire Ibrahim, said that the programme was in response to the current reality and to save the students from missing their classes daily.
“We are here to supervise the government’s free transport palliatives to students of higher institutions in Kwara State such as Unilorin, Kwara Polytechnic and KWASU in Malete. It is an important step by Governor AbdulRazaq to support the students because of the hardship of getting fuel,” he said.
Some of the benefitting students, who spoke to journalists at various points, appreciated the administration for being responsive and sensitive to their plights.
Suleiman Mubarak Olanrewaju – a student of University of Ilorin and member of the School Transport Committee, said the initiative came in handy for them, and commended the government for its timely intervention.
“Yes, there is government’s intervention buses all over here. I think we have four of Soludero buses. Everything here is free. It comes in handy for us because this place is always messy. For us to see Soludero buses here and they are even free, we thank the government for the palliatives,” he said.
Comrade Imam Olooto Abdulhakeem, an executive member of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), Kwara State axis, also lauded AbdulRazaq for acceding to their request, noting that the gesture would go a long way in alleviating their difficulty in getting to and coming from their respective campuses.
Abdulwahab AbdulHakeem said the free transport would save him from continuously staying on the campus for a whole week rather than attending classes and coming home daily.
“For me, I am very excited, because I used to stay around the campus for a whole week because of the mobility problem, but with this arrangement from the government, I will be able to go and come back home daily,” he said.
PIAK
