House Orders PRESSID Scholarship Stopped
Due To Abscence Of Northerners On Award
List (SHARE THIS)
For the second time in two years, the House of
Representatives on Thursday directed that the
Presidential Scholarship Scheme on Innovation
and Development should be suspended pending
its scrutiny of its process, procedures and
beneficiaries.
The House committee chairman on education,
Hon. Aminu Suleiman, who chaired a public
hearing on the matter, expressed regrets that
its previous decision was jettisoned by the
Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Universities
Commission (NUC) with the support of the ex-
minister of education, Nyesom Wike.
“Last year we asked for the exercise to be
stopped and reversed because some parts of
the country felt cheated. Unfortunately, the
Executive Secretary of the NUC through the
directive of the former minister of education
and the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF), snubbed us.
“But the committee allowed it to pass believing
that a lesson would have been learnt. But here
we are again. The same process is being
adopted.”
In response, the Executive Secretary of the
NUC, Prof. Julius Okojie, insisted that
qualification for the scholarship is based on
merit and not federal character. He explained
that only first class graduates are involved.
Stressing that out of the multiple entries, only
100 applicants are selected as beneficiaries,
Okojie advised that the scheme should not be
scrapped.
He said he would not be a party to deliberately
design a system that would exclude some parts
of the country. “Unless we are saying that the
criteria have to change, I will not advise that
the programme should be scrapped,” he
emphasized, pointing out that whatever
transpired at the meeting he would relay to
the President.
But again, Suleiman reminded him that “the
issues you raised this afternoon are similar to
the ones you gave us last year.”
He noted that Wike truncated the decision of
the House. “You continue to argue that there
are some states of the federation that cannot
make first class degrees.”
He faulted the NUC scribe for failing to
provide the advertisement the commission
made for the awards of scholarships, the list of
applicants and the members of the board that
selected the beneficiaries and how many times
the board sat.
Saying that the committee wanted these details
to ascertain why two-thirds of the country was
excluded from the programme, the committee
chairman observed : “You didn’t get back to us.
“The only thing we saw was the ceremony on
television where the former minister tried to
set parents against the National Assembly.
“It is our belief in this committee that there is
no state in the country where you cannot find
a first class graduate. Those questions we
asked last year are still valid.”
Suleiman then ruled: “Until that is done, we
will stop the process.”
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/house-
again-suspends-scholarship-scheme-on-
innovation-development/207581/