Federal government abandons Nigerian first class scholars abroad
Ugwu Chinedu grew up reading about Oxford and Cambridge universities in textbooks. Though he aspired to study in either of the two world-class varsities, he didn’t envision that it would be possible.
But fate smiled on him in the year 2012. It was the year the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration launched the Presidential Scholarship for Innovation and Development to sponsor students, who earned first-class grades in their undergraduate studies in Nigerian universities, to continue their master’s degrees and PhD in any top 25 universities in the world.
When Chinedu saw the call for application for the PRESSID scheme, he did not hesitate time to apply. Two years before the inauguration of the scholarship, he graduated with a first-class how honor in veterinary medicine from the University of Ibadan.
He said, “I got the PRESSID scholarship in 2012 after my application and successful participation in an aptitude test in Abuja. I remember vividly the then Executive Secretary of the National University Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, told us at the inauguration to drop every other scholarship we had or aspire to have because we had been chosen to lead innovation in Nigeria. I was elated and privileged.
“I started the master’s programme in Integrated Immunology at the University of Oxford in 2013. My tuition, living expenses and flight tickets were borne by the Federal Government. I completed MSc in September 2014 and a month after, I resumed for PhD in Veterinary Science at the University of Cambridge. I am currently in final year and should complete the programme by September 2018.”
Chinedu’s story is different now because rather than be happy that he is near completion of his PhD programme, he is uncertain of his fate.
SOURCE: PUNCH
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