Accepting 'Blood' Endowments?

by Eze Eluchie,

Something certainly does not add up here - a Billionaire who hails from and principally resides in impoverished, squalid and education-deprived hot-bed of Boko Haram terrorist operations in Nigeria’s north-eastern region, Bornu State, decides to donate the princely sum of US$14 Million to advance the cause of education - and where does he donate this sum? To the richly endowed University of Lynn in Florida, United States!!

The authorities and entire community of University of Lynn, Florida, which is the instant beneficiary of billionaire Mohammed Indimi’s donation, should perhaps wonder if indeed the gift they have received has by depriving the people of Bornu State of basic amenities, in any way, fueled the activities of Boko Haram in Bornu State and its axis.  Would the purpose of humanity not have been better served if the Mr. Indimi had been encouraged to devote his cash to uplifting the youths of Bornu, whose endemic impoverishment provides a ready and endless recruitment base for Boko Haram and other extremist Islamist terrorist groups operating in the north-eastern enclave of Nigeria and across West Africa? Is the University of Lynn wiling to be held responsible for further abductions, killings, be-headings and kidnapping of Nigerians and foreigners alike by the terrorist operating in this area arising from the further impoverishment of this hot-bed of Boko Haram activities by the cash flight which this donation directly represents? 

This is happening at a time when the Nigerian Government is going cap-in-hand to the ‘international community’ seeking for foreign aid to re-build basic educational infrastructure destroyed by Boko Haram terror elements in the same region where the Billionaire hails from.

To garnish the pretense, a lame-duck ‘Safe School Initiative Project’ which promises to be a drain-pipe for some easy cash fleeced out of tax-payer funds from some western seeks to fund educational activities in what is essentially a war-torn zone where even local civil authority structures is yet to be out in place. In essence, no one will be able to verify or confirm if funds granted for the building of a school was actually expended on building a school or merely found its way back into a personal account in the Cayman Islands or the Isles of Man.

The authorities of academic institutions in older democracies should be a bit more circumspect in accepting donations and or endowments that may be tainted or turn out to cause more harm for the areas from whence such donations emanated. At the same time, Tax-payers in the United States, the United Kingdom or other democratic countries whose leaders opt to accord dubious and wasteful ‘foreign aids’ should demand more accountability from their Governments. Assurance of access to some of these dubious ‘foreign aids’ largess’s fuels all manners of violence perpetuated on peoples in so-called emerging societies, inclusive of most of the countries in Sub Sahara Africa.

Picture: Billonaire Indimi, flanked by officials University of Lynn, Florida.