by crossriverwatch admin
Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba on Monday presented award letters to forty two additional beneficiaries of his annual scholarship scheme to undergraduates and post graduate students.
Speaking at the presentation, Senator Ndoma Egba said the scholarship programme is to develop young men and women who are the true resource of the community, state, Nigeria and humanity and should be assisted to acquire education which is very expensive particularly the intelligent but indigent ones who may drop out of school for financial reasons. “People think that mineral resources like oil, gold and others are the real resources of the state but the true resource of a nation are the human beings and in this category, the youths are the real resource”.
The Senate Leader said the youths represent “our tomorrow and demographers have said in the next thirty years, 30% of the world population who are under the age of thirty would be in Africa and the implication is that if we give this 30% of the world’s population education we would significantly be helping to reduce the world’s problems”.
He said the scholarship scheme precedes his election into the senate as it started in 1980 but became boosted and formal when he became a senator and had to reach more students in the six local government areas which compose his senatorial district. “Since 2003 we have been giving scholarships to five persons from each of the local government areas in the Central Senatorial District which runs throughout their stay in school so if it is a six year program, the scholarship runs for six years except the person’s cumulative average falls below the required aggregate”.
He said he has no influence over who benefits as the board has the sole responsibility of selecting qualified beneficiaries which is based on merit and indigence. “We should keep track of those who benefit so that after school we can also help them secure jobs for those who find it difficult to get jobs”.
He said since the inception of the programme, he has spent over sixty million Naira and “sometimes, my wife , Amaka helps me out when I don’t have money to sponsor the program”.
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