Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the government of President Bola Tinubu of abandoning Nigerian students studying abroad under the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA). He claims that some 1,600 scholarship recipients are now left without funding.
In a statement, Abubakar said the BEA scholarship program was quietly discontinued without warning to parents and students, even though many were already well advanced in their studies abroad. He described this as a breach of trust that has left the students in a precarious situation.
The BEA program, established in 1993 and relaunched in 1999, aimed to enable Nigerian students to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees through bilateral agreements with partner countries. Abubakar described the program as a vital diplomatic and educational bridge that has now been neglected.
According to him, the temporary suspension of the program, initially announced for five years, has turned into a complete shutdown. He stated that the scholarship recipients are now left without financial support, with outstanding payments amounting to thousands of dollars per student.
Atiku specified that the scholarships were not paid between September and December 2023, before being reduced by 56% in 2024, from $500 to $220 per month, and finally discontinued altogether. He added that no payments were made at all in 2025.
He explained that this situation has led to hunger, unpaid rent, and increasing hardship among the affected students. In one instance, a Nigerian student died in Morocco last November—an incident he attributed to the difficulties faced by the program participants.
The former vice president also stated that parents and students in Abuja had demonstrated in front of the Ministries of Education and Finance, demanding answers, but their concerns had been largely ignored.
He criticized statements by the Minister of Education suggesting that dissatisfied students could be allowed to return home, arguing that such statements downplayed years of academic effort and sacrifice.
Atiku explained that Nigerian students abroad who benefit from the BEA program were not only waiting for their scholarships to be paid out, but also for reassurance that their country had not abandoned them.
The Nigerian film industry has paid its final respects to veteran Nollywood actress, writer, and director Allwell Ademola, whose funeral was held on Friday in Lagos. Ademola passed away on December 27 at the age of 49 after suffering a heart attack at her residence. Her death was met with an outpouring of grief across the entertainment industry, where she was widely admired for her versatility and creative contributions. Funeral […]
Post comments (0)