Abuja - Chairman of the House of
Representatives Committee on Education,
Representative Aminu Suleiman, has called for
the Presidential Scholarship Scheme to be put on
hold forthwith.
Suleiman made the call at a meeting of the
committee with the National Universities
Commission (NUC) in Abuja on Thursday.
Suleiman said that the call became necessary
because the process of selecting candidates for
the scheme lacked due process.
He stressed that the scheme should be put on
hold until the commission complied with the
directive on due process in the selection of
candidates.
According to the committee chairman, NUC is
requested to furnish the committee with the
advertisement for the scholarship and the time it
takes Nigerians to respond.
Suleiman added that the committee requested
the commission to submit the list of all the
applicants for the scheme and the board
members of the commission that screened them.
He said that the commission had not responded
to the requests.
"The commission was not able to get back to us
when we requested for this information.
"We asked for it in our last meeting in 2014 but
only saw the ceremony on television where the
NUC was giving out awards to beneficiaries.
"It is our belief that there is no state in this
federation where you cannot find a first class
candidate.

"The committee is of the opinion that somebody
somewhere sat in his office, drew up a list and
submitted to the commission.
"The exercise must be halted until a full detail
of selection process is supplied to the
committee," he said.
The Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Julius
Okojie, said the scholarship committee was an
agency of the presidency, adding that all first
class graduates were eligible to sit for the
examination, irrespective of state of origin.
"I feel deeply pained that you insinuate that
there was no transparency in the exercise.
"The exercise is a process, criteria were set, we
advertised and it ran for six weeks.
"I will never be a party to shortchanging
anybody or get somebody disadvantaged.
"When you set criteria, it is easy to implement
but to say that the criteria are unfair is another
thing," Okojie said.
He, however, advised against scrapping the
programme, adding that it was a process of
selecting candidates purely on merit.
"Scrapping the programme is not advisable, it is
a system that is playing out and we are still
studying the programme.
"Beneficiaries are from all the geo-political zones
in the country and the criteria are for first class
honours graduates who sit for examinations as
part of the selection process."

http://www.news24.com.ng/Elections/News/Reps-seek-suspension-of-Presidential-Scholarship-Scheme-20150424

Very bad government. Why not hold off your bonuses and benefits for a while and let the masses deliberate on it. Devils in power. U will steal but u won't be able to keep it, for Ur loots will be splattered upon strangers.