Students face nightmares to obtain scholarships
Prior to and immediately after Nigeria gained independence many young Nigerians irrespective of their status were randomly picked to benefit from various forms of scholarship to prepare them for future endeavours. Most of these beneficiaries were children of the poor who today are now at the helm of affairs courtesy of the privilege they had […]
Prior to and immediately after Nigeria gained independence many young Nigerians irrespective of their status were randomly picked to benefit from various forms of scholarship to prepare them for future endeavours.
Most of these beneficiaries were children of the poor who today are now at the helm of affairs courtesy of the privilege they had to be educated. The irony though is they have failed to extend similar gestures to disadvantaged young Nigerians of today.
Investigation in Borno State revealed that students studying at various tertiary institutions within and outside the country are receiving the lowest scholarship allowances compared to their colleagues in other states. A reliable source told Weekly Trust at the Scholarship Board that the allowances have not been increased for over ten years.
It was gathered that while Yobe State which was carved out from Borno pays N18, 000 as the annual minimum allowance for its students undergoing National Diploma (ND) and degree programmes while that of law students stood at N500, 000 per annum while students studying medicine receives N20, 000 as monthly allowances, on the contrary their counterparts in Borno studying ND receive N3, 080 per annum.
Similarly undergraduates first year and second year students from Borno receive, N3, 600, third year students receive N3, 800 and fourth year students receive N4, 100 as scholarship payments. The amount paid to the students, investigations show, cannot even pay their registration fees. Despite this, the students do not get the allowances regularly as most of them collect the outstanding balance after completing their studies.
Sources say that although government has acknowledged the fact that the students were really underpaid and had set up several monitoring committees which toured some states with a view to finding out the amount being paid to students there for onward upward review, nothing has been done about it till date.
Commenting on the issue, Baba Gutti, President of the National Association of Borno State Students said the association has presented the issue before government, saying he was optimistic that Governor Ali Sheriff would increase their allowances so as to create favourable environment for their studies. According to him, the governor has unveiled effective modalities to uplift standard of education and promote students’ welfare especially with the recent donation of 18-seater bus to the association.
When contacted, Executive Secretary of the Scholarship Board, Bukar stated that although scholarship is not a right but a privilege, government has done a lot in that area and has prioritised its attention on students studying medicine, engineering and other specialised fields that would assist the state to move forward. He said Borno has the highest number of tertiary institutions nationwide and that its resources are inadequate to cater for scholarships adding that the state cannot ignore other sectors. He disclosed that presently, over 4000 students are on the payroll of the board and that over N130m is being spent on payment of allowances to the students.
In Benue State, disbursement of scholarship to students is as secretive as it is suspicious, with various students’ bodies particularly the Community of Tiv Students (CTS), National Association of Idoma Students (NAIS) and National Union of Igede Students (NUIS), accusing the umbrella National Union of Benue State Students (NUBESS) for allegedly conniving with the state Scholarship Board to inflate the number of beneficiaries in order to pick monies on ghost heads.
All bodies accuse the current NUBESS leadership of conniving with the board to build in ghost names on the list of beneficiaries. NUBESS Vice President, Comrade Asaamo Tyodoo said he cannot deny the allegation since he said the board chose to be dealing only with the President, Miss Mnena Kyondo who has severally come under stiff opposition following alleged backhand deals.
The board’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Jack Gum could not be gotten on his seat at the time of visit, but Special Assistant to Governor Gabriel Suswam on Youths and Students Affairs, Mr. Terfa Akem confirmed to Weekly Trust on phone that the governor has problems with the disbursement of scholarship to the over 30,000 beneficiaries on the state list.
Akem disclosed that although the governor agreed with NUBESS’s appeal for an increment to what the students described as “meagre pay”, he (Suswam) insisted the union must produce the actual number of students of Benue State extraction before he can approve any increment. He said the governor does not want to increase the scholarship without first ascertaining that the beneficiaries actually exist.
Mr. Yanov Kukwa, the immediate past spokesman of CTS told Weekly Trust that the crisis currently rocking NUBESS stems from the struggle for members to have access to corner the scholarship, since he alleged that the successive leaderships of the union have benefited illegally from irregularities in the disbursement of scholarships to students. He said, “Here, scholarship is not regular and it is deliberate so that the students can forfeit it, and so that all frauds can be perfected.”
The administration of Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi inherited a lot of unsettled bursary allowances payable to foreign students from the state. Not long after he took over, some of the students studying in Malaysia started boycotting classes and demonstrating. This drew the attention of the government. The governor threatened them with expulsion. Eventually, the problem was solved, although some of the students lost their chances to continue with their higher education.
A year later in 2009, the governor in his budget presentation stated that his administration will give attention to extensive national and international scholarship scheme through the state scholarship board and the River state Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA). Currently, there are Rivers State indigenes studying under the scholarship scheme both at home and abroad.
Many of them are studying medicine, information technology, engineering and law in universities in Scotland, England and Canada. About 200 of such students are engaged in information technology training in Singapore. According to the governor, the bias for these courses is based on the vision of the state government to empower indigenes to take over sensitive and lucrative jobs in the oil and gas sector in the state.
Although, the government has paid the allowances of 395 youths studying in Malaysia and Russia; and also paid the outstanding 2005 bursary awards, it has refused to disclose how much was involved. Our reporter who made inquiries was told to wait until clearance is obtained from the commissioner for education.
The Kano State government has disbursed over N2.5billion scholarship grants to students from 2002 to 2008, Executive secretary scholarship Board Alhaji Ibrahim Muhammad has disclosed.
Muhammad who stated this in an exclusive interview with Weekly Trust in his office said out of the said amount, over N2.2 billion was disbursed as scholarship for internal students, while over N329 million was committed on overseas students.
He explained that students that benefited from the scholarship were no fewer than 221,321 all studying in higher institutions of learning within Nigeria and abroad.
According to him, the scholarship disbursed during the Shekarau administration has almost tripled what was being given to students in the previous administration. “The maximum amount paid as scholarship previously and to only science students was N7,000 per each student but now we are paying law students N300, 000, science students N15, 000 and Arts students that were hitherto not receiving anything now receive N12, 000,” he said.
The executive secretary further noted that external students that were neglected by previous administration now receive scholarship from the state government to enable them obtain their Masters and PhD degrees in fields that could best be obtained abroad. Muhammad also disclosed that currently there were about one thousand Kano indigenes in Egypt studying medicine and other science related courses, as well as over one thousand in Sudan and Malaysia.
Weekly Trust learnt that another development in the disbursement of scholarship in Kano State is the mode of payment. Unlike before when students were receiving their money through counter payment, now it is paid through banks.
Our reporters gathered that this new development has enhanced the exercise and has reduced problems that were previously being encountered during the disbursement exercise. Payments are made through many banks across the state.
In Lagos State the Deputy Governor, Princess Serah Sosan said in the past one year, 513 students of the state in various institutions of higher learning that scored 4.0 aggregate and above were awarded local scholarships to the tune of N144million.
The deputy governor said new awards of new foreign scholarship has been suspended, however, she said the existing beneficiaries whose number she did not disclose, were still being sustained. She added that the Scholarship Board, in line with the dictates of diligence and due process, has kept the tab on the beneficiaries of these categories of awardees locally and abroad to determine the level of their award’s effectiveness.
At the Ministry of Education, it was gathered that for the year 2009 awards, a total sum of about N100 million has been approved as bursary to 3,326 awardees but the payment is yet to be commenced by the board. It was also gathered that the Board’s operations have been fully automated while all applications for the Board’s facilities are applied on-line.
In addition, with effect from January 2008, the State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has approved the upward review of rates payable to beneficiaries of bursary and scholarship awards ranging from 100 percent to 500 percent regarding Medicine and Engineering.
Meanwhile, the award of federal scholarship has been ongoing with the awards done on meritorious basis to students spread across the country. Just as reports from states indicate, the awarding process of the federal scholarship also needs to be perfected and made regular. In the heart of this debate is creating equal opportunity especially for indigent students with excellent academic record who cannot afford the fees that will see them through higher education.