Auwalu Salisu, a Kano native and tricycle rider, has been awarded a scholarship by Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi and running mate Baba-Ahmed Datti in exchange for returning N15 million to the tricycle’s owner.
In September of last year, Salisu, a 22-year-old tricycle rider, returned N15 million that a customer from Chad had forgotten while shopping in Kano.
Salisu, who lives in Yankaba in the state’s Nasarawa Local Government Area, gave the money back after learning about it from a Kano radio station announcement regarding the missing funds.
At the ongoing LEADERSHIP awards and conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the scholarship was announced.
With the university’s proprietor and running mate, Ahmed Datti, standing by his side, Obi declared that Baze University would take care of Salisu’s housing, food, and other needs until he graduated.
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After Salisu found N15 million, including some CFA currency, and gave it back to its Republic of Chad-based owner, he became the talk of the town.
In his remarks after receiving the award as politician of the year, Obi said there was an urgency to invest in Northern Nigeria.
He said: “The North has no reason to be poor in Nigeria. We make more money from agriculture than oil. Imagine Ukraine is giving Nigeria grain, a country that is in war. We have land and everything more than them. But they are giving us grain because 60 per cent of their land is cultivated and 60 per cent of our own is uncultivated.
“The two biggest states in the North East: Borno and Taraba have 70,000 and 55,000 square kilometers which is four times the size of Belgium but Belgium is exporting what we dont even export a quarter of”
He stated that the only way to address Nigeria’s economic crisis was to give young people access to jobs and a business environment, and that the more young people who were lifted out of poverty, the lower the country’s crime rate.
