NDDC scholars hail Buhari for aiding release of scholarship grants
It is exciting times again for Nigerian students currently engaging their academic pursuits overseas under the auspices of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as reports indicate that the overseas students have started receiving payments for tuition fees and study grants since President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the release of the scholarship grants about two weeks ago.
N-Epba, a representative of the students confirmed this during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari’s special adviser on legislative affairs, Sen. Ita Enang.
“We are gathered here today because we have seen results. It is something that is of great joy to us. Thank you for speaking on our behalf,” he noted.
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Some of the overseas-based students including Olukayode Olugbemi, Daniel Danor,
John Essien, Iwagun Temitope, and Gbenga Linus joined the meeting virtually via Zoom Video Conferencing. They equally expressed appreciation to President Buhari and called for some perceived lapses in the scholarship scheme to be sorted out.
Comrade Idongesit Ukpong, the coordinator of the students union in Akwa Ibom State, was full of praise for President Buhari’s swift effort to arrest a problem that had turned the Nigerian scholars to beggars in a strange land.
In his response, Senator Enang assured the students that the president is concerned about the welfare of Niger Delta people including students from the region.
“When you led the protest to me in Abuja, and the overseas students led the protest to the High Commission in London, I addressed you Abuja office, I addressed the students (overseas) virtually. At the meeting, I conveyed to you that His Excellency, the president, is telling you to cool temper, I told you that the issue would be sorted out,” he recalled.
While promising that the concerns of students of the region will remain a priority to the Buhari led administration, he urged the benefitting students to be serious in their studies so as to have ample knowledge which will translate into meaningful progress in the Niger Delta region.
“We as a government will ensure that the future of our children is not endangered,” he said.
