Shoe Polish Kits: Commissioner In Trouble As Governor Angry

Borno State Commissioner for Higher Education and aspirant for the House of Representatives, Usman Jaha (Babawo), in trouble for allegedly embarrassing the government by distributing kits for shoe polish and other items to youths in Gwoza Local Government Area, it emerged on Thursday.

Though the kits are said to be his personal welfare programme, Governor Kashim Shettima has described the gesture as an embarrassment following social media outcry.

Daily Trust quoting an unnamed state government official familiar with the development told of journalists in Maiduguri, that Governor Shettima reminded the commissioner that the ministry he is heading had facilitated the approval of foreign universities scholarship to more than 300 Borno youths, a feat which he said should be celebrated.

The source said there were almost 100 ladies studying medicine abroad as part of the governor’s initiative towards empowering the youths to have a brighter future and therefore could not be party to the distribution of shoe shining kits.

“The governor also told the commissioner that his ministry is the one building the Borno State University, 41 years after creation of the state and therefore wondered why on earth the commissioner who holds a degree and has been visiting the Borno State students abroad chose to distribute shoe polish as part of his own understanding of human capacity development for youths in Gwoza,” he said.

It was gathered that the commissioner told Governor Shettima that the distribution was his personal intervention based on request from the beneficiaries.

He reportedly told the governor that he interacted with the youth before given them the kits.