The Academic Staff Union of Universities, on Thursday gave scholarship grants of N200,000 each to two Ebonyi State University Abakaliki students.
The two beneficiaries, Chukwuemeka Ogar P and Ms. Onwe Emmanuella C were EBSU final-year surgery and medical students.
Dr. Okechukwu Igwenyi, the ASUU Chairman of the Ebonyi State University chapter, gave the students their cheques in Abakaliki and explained that the beneficiaries were selected according to a set of strict yet clear-cut criteria. He observed it was wrong to blackmail the ASUU as a body known for only strikes and industrial actions, adding “We are here to inform the public that apart from fighting for improved funding and protect the autonomy of universities, we also care for students by providing annual scholarship awards to successful indigent students from all the public universities in Nigeria.”
He said, “There is no gainsaying the fact that the ruling class is surreptitiously making education very expensive and unaffordable by common Nigerians. School fees, meals, consumables and other sundry expenses have become so expensive and beyond the reach of a common man such that students who refuse to drop out have been pushed into unthinkable ventures to stay on campus and acquire the necessary university education.
“The terrible excruciating economic conditions students and parents are subjected to, has occasioned a high rate of drop out of diligent and intelligent students due to poverty and frustration.
The deplorable state of student welfare and security, as well as the depressed and unstable national economy, which has forced some students to look for other distracting forms of revenue in order to pay for their tuition and other necessities, are among Igwenyi’s stated worries.
“Currently, most students do not know what Bursary award by states and local governments, as it were, is all about and possibly do not understand that an ordinary student can win a scholarship or grant on merit.”
He added, “Our scholarships award scheme has been running for years and we provide research support presently to the tune of N500,000 as Ph.D Research Grant to selected members of ASUU in all public universities in Nigeria. Three of our members have benefitted from that scheme.
“Beyond our members, we also have our students in our plan. It is, therefore, imperative to mention now that over the years and as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, ASUU National Executive Council has been dispensing monies from our check-off deductions and offer the same as scholarship grants to selected indigent students across the country based on some stringent but transparently determinable parameters.”
He stated that as a result, ASUU-EBSU has nominated a few students from its university in recent years, and these nominees have typically been successful.
Ms. Onwe Emmanuella, one of the beneficiaries, expressed her delight at learning that she had been chosen for the scholarship award and added that she would use the N200,000 to pay off her outstanding school expenses.
She said, “I feel elevated, because I have waited for a long time for the outcome of the screening. And I’m surprised that at the end, it yielded results and I am happy about it.
With this scholarship, I am sure I will be able to offset my outstanding school fees that have been waiting for me for a long time now to pay and also, take care of other courses I am yet to register.”
According to the second awardee, Ogar Peter, “I am just too emotional to express what I feel over the scholarship. I am grateful to ASUU-EBSU chapter. I am also sure that this grant will go a long way at solving some of my basic needs in school.”
