There were no full details of this purported competition, no video clip to show when the wonder boy was reciting Qur’an during the competition, no mention of any gift given to him apart from giving him a choice to have a picnic in any country of his choice. I don’t know why I cannot locate the original Daily Trust link of the news caption now, but I read the news using a Daily Trust link at that time. At first, I could not believe what I read. It was almost too good to be true, I thought. But then if the story was referring to a boy in the far North-East or Southern part of Nigeria, it would have been very difficult for me to independently verify. Luckily for me, the story referred to a boy from Zaria – my own home town where I was born and bred – who attends Professor Ango Abdullahi International School (PAAIS), Zaria. Despite my familiarity with most of the best schools in Zaria, I had never known or heard about this school before reading the boy’s story on Daily Trust. That may be largely because I left the City for my PhD abroad, after having studied from primary up to masters degree level in Zaria. The story was also timely for me, because, at that time, I had already concluded plans to relocate my children back to Nigeria where they would continue their primary education. The best schools that I had learned about with a good blend of Western and Islamic education were Darul Ilm Academy and Al-Ansar Foundation School. I settled for Al-Ansar as my primary target for my children. The school had just graduated its first set of primary six pupils who had all memorized the Glorious Qur’an –it is the school’s target to graduate primary pupils who have memorized the complete Qur’an.

I told myself to be patient and wait for the summer vacation when I would be spending my summer vacation in Zaria, so, I could find out more about PAAIS and if possible meet with this so-called wonder boy. As they say, seeing is believing. When I went to Nigeria during the 2016 summer, a friend of mine, Dr. Adamu Lawan came to my house, one day. I brought up the boy’s story to find out from him if he knew about the school (PAAIS) since he lives somewhere near the school’s address. He affirmatively responded, and told me that he knows the boy and the school’s proprietor i.e. Shamsuddeen Aliyu Mai-Yasin. He confirmed to me that he had personally witnessed one of the sessions when the little kids were tested on their memorization of the glorious Qur’an. I was pleased to request him to kindly arrange a meeting between the duo and me so that I could also witness it firsthand, which he did. I have memorized only a few portions of the glorious Qur’an, so I am not an expert on Qur’anic memorization but I have a close friend who obtained his master’s degree in Qur’anic sciences from Sudan and was about completing his PhD in Qur’an, also from Sudan, Dr. Rilwanu Shehu Usman (Bazamfare). I invited him to attend the meeting with me. Also, from my side, I invited Engr. Adam Sa’ad Abu Abdulrahman. In addition, Dr. Rilwanu invited about 3 more people, among them, was Dr. Jamilu Abdulkadir of Institute of Education, ABU Zaria, who was about completing his PhD in Arabic Language from Sudan at the time. With this team of experts on Qur’an and Arabic Language, we met for the first time with PAAIS’s proprietor, who introduced himself as Dr. Shamsuddeen Aliyu. He went on to say that he had a PhD in Pharmacy from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and had a BSc in Integrated Science from the same university. To cut a long story short, we met with Shamsuddeen Aliyu twice where we asked him, with his admin staff members many questions about how the school runs, their system of education, etc. We tried to test the wonder boy, Aliyu, but his father, who is PAAIS’s proprietor told us that after winning the 2nd position in the Qur’anic competition that took place in Saudi Arabia, he had been sponsored for a picnic in London. In his absence, the father called Aliyu’s older brother Muhammad who was about 3 years and 8 months old. When one of my team members Dr. Jamilu quoted a Qur’anic verse for the young Muhammad to continue, he kept quiet. Then, we called his seniors from primary 1 and 2 who had also memorized the complete Qur’an to quote any part of the Qur’an for him. See my status update on Facebook titled “SUBHANALLAH! AN AMAZING QUR’ANIC MEMORIZATION AT A YOUNG AGE” and watch the two video clips which I recorded with my mobile phone when Muhammad was being tested by his seniors. Shamsuddeen explained to us how the school operates. He told us the school’s director is Prof. J.S. Mari from the Department of Education, ABU Zaria. In addition, he told us that Prof. K.S. Ahmed (Chemical Engineering Department, ABU, Zaria), Prof. G.D. Kalayi (Surgery Department, ABUTH, Zaria) and former finance minister, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, all have their kids enrolled in the school. We categorically asked him to tell us the creed (Aqidah) which the school adopts to run its Islamic subjects to which he replied that they did not explicitly state the adoption of any creed because of the divergent nature of the school’s board members where some are Sunnis, Shi’ites, Christians, etc. He stated that his main reason behind having people of various creeds and religions is to tap from their respective expertise in their various areas of specializations for the betterment of the school. He indirectly made us believe that they use Sunni books for subjects that deal with theology. We later found some Sufi books in their library. After these lengthy fact-finding meetings, I became convinced and I enrolled my 4 kids in the school with the belief that PAAIS has a better package to offer my kids than Al-Ansar Foundation School where I could not obtain admission for all my 4 kids at that time. More so, I had met and interacted with kids who had memorized the complete Qur’an at 3, 6, and 7 years at PAAIS and was informed that my kids could also memorize the complete Qur’an within just 1 – 2 years based on the target that I set for the school. You will all agree with me that this was an attractive bait, almost irresistible! Dr. Rilwanu Shehu Usman had some reservations but still went ahead to enroll one of his kids. I came to know later, through my kids and the proprietor that the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Y.T. Buratai, Emir of Zazzau, H.E. Alh. Shehu Idris (CFR), Senator Binta Masi Garba and Adam A. Zango in addition to a host of other notable figures all had some of their kids in the school as well.

(2) Monitoring & Follow-Up

I drafted targets for all my kids who I enrolled in the Special Classes run by the school whereby each student would be assigned a teacher for special coaching. I happen to be someone who passionately keeps tabs on my kids’ activities and performances in their schools to the letter, despite being thousands of kilometers away from them. I would call every day to receive feedback from their mother. I was also compiling all feedback into a journal and would visit the proprietor whenever I came to Nigeria, which was almost every 2 months, to engage him in areas that I had complaints or areas that I thought they needed to improve on. Particularly, my kids had many instances where they stepped on a sharp object because of bad housekeeping or were bullied by other students. The school environment was dirty and students were not encouraged to observe good hygiene. I was not okay with their method of writing the students’ report cards. I believe in a report that indicates students’ relative performances in each subject not merely writing students’ grades by subject no matter how excellent the grades may be. I later found out from my kids after I had withdrawn them from the school that the teachers at PAAIS had been telling them answers during their examinations. During one of such engagements with the school administration officer in March 2017, while discussing my journal of complaints, someone came to the office where I was grilling the Admin Officer and introduced himself as a correspondent and that he intended to interview me, being one of the parents who had enrolled their wards in the school. I agreed and he interviewed me in the presence of the Admin Officer. During the interview, I started by appreciating the efforts of the school’s management on areas where I honestly believed that they had done well and ended the interview by highlighting some of the areas the school’s management was weak and therefore needed to improve for better service delivery.

When I went to Nigeria that summer, I was dissatisfied with the way and manner the school management handled my serial complaints. I had lost hope. More so, my kids were far from achieving those targets that I set for them because of unserious commitment from their teachers and preferential treatment of students by staff. In summary, they would tell you one thing, but when you probe them, you would find the complete opposite. I had to withdraw my youngest daughter in July even before the end of the 3rd term. I withdrew the remaining 3 kids at the end of the 3rd term and enrolled them in Darul Ilm Academy, Zangon Shanu, Zaria, the following session. I had also enrolled them in the part-time program run by Al-Ansar Foundation School. Later, I received a message from the Admin Office of PAAIS asking me to tell them why I withdrew all my kids from the school after he came to the realization that my kids were no longer attending PAAIS. I did not reply to his message. I wanted to avail myself of an opportune moment to lay bare my grievances as I had outlined above. I had openly used my Facebook wall to advertise for PAAIS. Hence, I owe my followers a duty to give them feedback openly. Dr. Rilwanu had already withdrawn his kid after completing only one term in the school. This, I later came to know after I had withdrawn my kids. In addition, my niece who lives in Kano and had enrolled 2 of her kids in the school based on my recommendation also withdrew her kids immediately she came to know that I had withdrawn my kids from the school. She also had tonnes of complaints about the school even before she learned about my withdrawal. In summary, many parents withdrew their wards from PAAIS after I had withdrawn my kids – some of them because of my feedback on the school’s poor performance, and others, for reasons best known to them.

The school’s management had restrategized its search for more patronage from parents and embarked on intensive media campaigns around March 2018 by using the interview which I granted the press exactly 1-year later. They chose to play the incomplete interview frequently on Nagarta Radio (747 kHz). However, the remaining part of the interview where I listed their weak areas and called on them to address those areas was not aired at all. Many people thought the interview was recorded in 2018 and most people were not aware that I had already withdrawn my kids from the school at the time of the advertisement. Some people would call me and my family members to find out more about the school with the hope of enrolling their kids based on the interview and we would tell them our updated appraisal of the school. My friend Dr. Kabir Ahmad mentioned on his Facebook wall that I was deceived by the school. I was a victim of a bait-and-switch scam.

(3) False PhD Claim

Because of my frequent complaints when my kids were in PAAIS, I came to know the proprietor more closely. I would call or chat him up whenever I had any issues that I wanted to discuss with him. I had interacted with him face-to-face in English Language and had at first engaged him on Facebook Messenger in English only. However, to my greatest surprise, I noted that his spoken English is poor for a PhD holder in Pharmacy. I used to write to him in English at the beginning, but when I realized that his written English was even worse than his spoken English – he hardly writes a correct sentence – I resorted to chatting with him in Hausa. I kept wondering if the educational standard had become so low that a university like ABU would graduate a PhD in Pharmacy who could hardly write one correct sentence? I deliberately hid this fact from my wife – she is the grammarian and has a low threshold for grammatical blunders. Please note that I don’t claim any mastery of the English Language. I make many mistakes in almost all my write-ups and I am still struggling and learning the language from the experts. However, for someone who claimed to have studied up to PhD level, yet, could hardly construct one sentence free of spelling and grammatical mistakes, this calls for a big question mark on the authenticity of his credentials.

In 2018, I met Dr. Adamu Lawan again and he updated me that Shamsuddeen Aliyu did not have a PhD but he claimed that one university in Sudan had awarded him an honorary doctorate. Revealing this PhD scam had restored my hope that our educational standards are not as bad as I thought based on my interaction with Shamsuddeen. The puzzle was coming together. I don’t know if Shamsuddeen is aware of the “Keffi Declaration” where the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities bar recipients of honorary doctorates from prefixing “Dr.” to their names on October 3, 2012. Nowadays, every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to prefix “Dr.” to his/ her name by hook or by crook. I remember a story recounted by the former State Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu when he wanted to study medicine. His father told him that if he wanted to become a doctor, then, he should not go through a shortcut and study medicine only to be called a doctor with just a bachelor’s degree (my wife would never agree with this submission). Rather, he should go through the longer route to become a PhD. Dr. Ibe did just that and the rest, as they say, was history. I say a similar thing to you Shamsuddeen, if you want to become a PhD, you can still go back to the university and earn it, you are still young. But it won’t do you any good to be parading yourself as a PhD when in fact, your academic acumen and disposition do not and cannot support your claim. For your information, there are renowned professors that cannot prefix “Dr.” to their names because they do not have a PhD. Examples, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Prof. Chinua Achebe and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (current Nigerian Vice President). In the American educational system, one can be made a professor with just a bachelor’s (i.e. first) degree. But I still wonder how University of Lagos (UNILAG) awarded professorship to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo in the 90s without him having a PhD – such cannot happen in ABU. There is a new trend now in town whereby Nigerian Senior Lecturer academics are running away from their true British and official ranks of senior lecturers, instead, they prefer to use the American equivalent of senior lecturer which is an assistant professor as their official rank thereby making them appear scammish or fraudulent since they are not lecturing in an institution that follows the American academic ranking system like the American University of Nigeria. Well, Nigeria is a country where anything is possible.

(4) Purported Scholarship Ruse

I have read lately about the ‘purported’ scholarship ruse that involves PAAIS whereby Shamsuddeen granted BBC Hausa a short interview and confirmed that the popular artiste Adam A. Zango had made payment to the tune of N46.75 million Naira for the sponsorship of 101 orphans and indigent students from SS1 to SS3. Oak Tv Hausa reported that one Jafar Jafar – I don’t know if he is the same Ja’afar Ja’afar who is the publisher of the online-based newspaper Daily Nigerian – had confirmed that Adam A. Zango and Shamsuddeen are friends, or specifically as Adam A. Zango put it, Shamsuddeen is his boss. We are talking about someone who used an edited interview I granted him to advertise for his school and gain cheap popularity even when he was fully aware that I had withdrawn all my kids from his school. Given the questionable character of the school’s proprietor as highlighted in this piece, Adam A. Zango may need to go a step further to make available the bank receipt of this huge financial transaction and present the full details of all the 101 beneficiaries for us to be convinced. This will not in any way lessen his reward from the Almighty Allah because the matter is already in the public domain. One thing I know for sure is that Shamsuddeen can go to any length to advertise his school even if it means publicly accepting that he had received N46.75 million Naira when in actual sense, not a penny has been deposited in his account. I am not in any way purporting Adam A. Zango to be an accomplice or a fraud, but he needs to come out clean in this matter.