Secrets Reporter
A fresh review of Usmanu Danfodiyo University’s 2024 finances under the leadership of Professor Suleiman Bilbis has uncovered irregularities totalling ₦9,343,553,697.25, with more than 95 per cent of that amount tied to records the institution refused to release to federal financial reviewers.
The university, established in 1975 as one of Nigeria’s four second-generation federal universities, has produced generations of graduates. But its 2024 financial year presents a troubling picture, according to findings from a review of the institution’s financial records by federal authorities.
At the centre of the controversy is ₦8,962,458,886.27 more than ₦8.9 billion linked to a single finding: the university’s refusal to provide access to key documents and financial records. Government financial inspectors, empowered to examine public accounts, were denied access to the records they needed. As a result, there is no clear public explanation of how the ₦8.9 billion was spent, leaving important questions about the institution’s financial records unanswered.
The remaining findings, though smaller, still weigh heavily. Contracts awarded in violation of due process account for ₦217,446,110.00. Unsubstantiated and unaccounted payments make up ₦81,085,859.00. Internally generated revenue never remitted stands at ₦60,059,866.98, while an irregular vehicle procurement contract accounts for ₦22,502,975.00. Two further findings of irregularities in a contract award and a mobilisation fee released under a conditional arrangement carried no isolated figures but add to the pattern of concern.
The year under review fell across a leadership transition. Professor Lawal Suleiman Bilbis served as Vice-Chancellor from July 2019 until his tenure ended in September 2024, presiding over roughly the first eight months of 2024. Professor Bashir Garba succeeded him, assuming office on 1 September 2024 for a single five-year term, and remains Vice-Chancellor today.
Both men bear responsibility for this file, Bilbis for the period before the leadership change, and Garba for the remainder of 2024 and for the continuing obligation, inherited on his very first day in office, to explain why auditors were denied access to records behind ₦8.96 billion in spending.
Section 85(2) of Nigeria’s Constitution exists precisely so that no public institution can hide its books from the nation’s Auditor-General. A university refusing that access over a sum this large invites the most basic question any Nigerian taxpayer is entitled to ask: what is in those records that the institution did not want seen?
The laws broken here are foundational. Section 85(2) of the 1999 Constitution guarantees the Auditor-General, or anyone authorised on his behalf, access to all books, records and documents relating to public accounts violated outright by the ₦8.96 billion denial. The Public Procurement Act 2007 requires documented due process for every contract award violated by ₦217.45 million. And the Financial Regulations 2009 require full remittance of internally generated revenue violated by ₦60.06 million.
