Jonathan gave all scholarship slots to southerners

“The context and contents of the article revealed terrifying statistics of the mindboggling deficiency in WAEC’s staff composition. He highlighted that WAEC being a very important and largest examination body in the country should have the representations of all stake-holders, not to be micro-managed and dominated only by staff from the south.“I wish to on […]

“The context and contents of the article revealed terrifying statistics of the mindboggling deficiency in WAEC’s staff composition. He highlighted that WAEC being a very important and largest examination body in the country should have the representations of all stake-holders, not to be micro-managed and dominated only by staff from the south.
“I wish to on behalf of many northerners that may benefit and secure a job in the WAEC as a result of this article, express our profound gratitude to the Malaysian-based Nigerian scholar, an academician par excellence and a distinguished gentleman, Ibraheem Dooba, for bringing this matter to the fore. This damning deliberate sectionalism in administering WAEC would have remained a mystery if not because of his undaunted effort. Professor Brainy may your ink never dry and God bless you sir.
But I also received a nasty rant from [email protected] who wrote: “That’s a very very wrong article, still wondering how it was published, if you keep living in sentiment and tribal segregation then Nigeria will never move forward, northerner or no northerner, the question should be, how is the service output and shit, not who’s leading or not!!!”
Yet, about a month later, on Monday 13 May 2013, WAEC published an advert in Daily Trust seeking northerners to fill some vacancies in the organization.  It specifically requested people from Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Ebonyi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina. Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara to apply.
Coincidence?  Well, let’s have more coincidences like that again regarding the problem of today, which is a vexatious matter of a delicate nature. 
NUC has released names of students granted presidential scholarship called, Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme for Innovation and Development (PRESSID), to study in the top 25 universities in the world.  That’s not the big news.  The news is, all of the successful candidates are southerners.  This has elicited many questions from northerners, many of them significant questions.
The list of 104 successful candidates was published in the Daily Trust of Tuesday, May 20, 2014.  A day before that,  on 19 May 2013, NAN reported that only 39 candidates were successful, “No fewer than 39 candidates passed the examination for the second edition of the Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme for Innovation and Development (PRESSID),” it reported.  “Prof. Julius Okojie, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), made the disclosure in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday.
“Okojie said the second edition of the scheme was for the 2014/2015 academic session, adding that the successful candidates had been invited for an initial briefing at the NUC, Abuja, on June 9, at 9 a.m.”
Okojie, the NUC boss and also the Chairman, Implementation Committee of the scheme, stated in the statement that the successful candidates had met the minimum requirements for the scheme, initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan.
 “[T]he 39 candidates happened to be the best among the best’, and the essence of the scheme was to train professionals to drive the transformation agenda of the present administration and the goals of the vision 20:2020.”
A clear statement telling northerners that they are not part of President Jonathan’s transformation agenda.  I don’t know how many northerners were among the 2000 applicants who applied for the scheme or how many of them were among the 623 who sat for the screening examination in December last year.
When I went to NUC’s website at noon on Thursday, the entire site was down.  When it came up around 4pm, the list had disappeared.  This came a little too late, because NUC can’t delete the one in my hard drive and the adverts in the newspapers.  So you can have a look at the entire list at my blog: www.IbraheemDooba.com
But before you do that, let me give you the first 10 names, the middle 10 and the last 10 names and shake your head after you’ve read them.
First 10
* Oyedokun James Timilehin
* Jackson Inimfon Nsikak
* Obong-Eren Uduak Sandy
* Alabi-Bello Mutiu Adeoye
* Oderinwale Temitayo
* Alimi Olubkola Sinat
* Owoeye Kehinde Ayodeji
* Bello Adesola Temitope
* Abdulwahab Owoyemi Ibrahim
* Babarinde Oluwatobi Fiyin

The middle 10 names
* Ugwuoke Lotanna Ernest
* Nkwocha Elaine Adaku
* Ogbunuzor Christopher Chinedu
* Shekoni Idris Abiodun
* Tofade Tayo Oluwaseyi
* Udoh Etim Gabrile
* Igbokwe Nneoma
* Malife Chukudiuto Udechukwu
* Ogunjemilusi Raphael Bunmi
* Okoroafor Somtochukwu Chikamso
The last 10 names
* Babalola Omotola James
* Idugboe Okundaiye Stefano
* Chukwu Obinna Alexi
* Teslim-Balogun Adeyanju Ashabi
* Alayo Quazim Adegbola
* Shoneye Ayoola Stephen
* Ijarogbe Ayooluwa Ifeoluwa
* Olarenwaju Olajumoke 
    Oluwabunmi
* Adeyinka Titilayo Ruth
* Ossai Enweliku Calvin

Did you see any Nupe, Igbira, Hausa, Fulani, Jukun, Kakanda or Gwari names?  Did you see any Birom, Anaguta, Angas, Ataka, Babur, Bachama, Idoma or Kilba names?
This is incredible.   Are we saying no northerner is one of the ‘best of the best’?
We demand to see list of all those who applied.  We want to know the criteria used in reducing 2000 applicants to 623 who wrote the screening examination.  We want to know when this opportunity was advertised and where.  We want to know why it took more than five months from the screening examination to release the names of successful candidates.  Also why is there a discrepancy between, the statement NUC released to NAN and the advert it published in the number of successful candidates – 39 is not equal to 104.
If NUC and members of Implementation Committee of the scheme deliberately schemed out the northerners, are they as dumb as the owner of the transformation agenda?
How many is 104?  Not many, really.  One of our governors, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano, sends multiples of that number of students abroad in a year.  This is a message to other northern governors to emulate Kwankwaso.