“They used to be a functional Cross River State Scholarship Board. They sourced for scholarships even outside Cross River State for students. I benefited from one of those scholarships. Board members came with scholarship forms to the University. In far away Sokoto. Went from faculty to faculty… In fact department to department to get qualified students to apply for the scholarships. My Head of Department gave them my name and arranged for me to pick up the forms. After the interview, I was given a cheque. This scholarship was not Cross River State money. The State only sourced for it and covered the logistics. What is wrong with the Scholarship Board? – Peter Ogar Ikibunim
This is not long ago o. It’s not in the 90s o. It’s in the 2000s oh.
The incumbent Commissioner for Education in Cross River State, Amanke was DG of the Board before he was promoted to Commissioner. Then Nuella Anyin, also from Obanliku like Amanke, took over from him. I have personally engaged both Amanke and Nuella to ask this same question: What is happening to our Scholarships Board? I suggested to them that the Board should be revamped and strengthened to function again. I thought that there was also a need for the State Assembly to tinker with legislation to allow for more State Government contributions from first-line charge and public contributions from other stakeholders to up the vault of the Board and inject more private participation.
When Hon. Hilary Bisong, Hon. Legor Idagbo and Senator Jarigbe muted the idea of their scholarship schemes, I called them and also suggested that these funds are better passed through the Board if it is revamped. That is what led to those online scholarship initiatives we test-ran. They all agreed with me after that but not much has happened since all these initial engagements.
There is a need to reopen this discussion as urgently as possible to see how it can lead to concrete steps to make sure that the Board serves its purpose. People cannot continue to earn money without offering the value expected from their places of responsibility. We need to demand for it. But of course, if there are issues inhibiting the Board from delivering on its mandate, stakeholders must remove those hurdles for them to get back to value as testified by Peter Ogar Ikibunim, above.
You see this education matters in our State, we all need to join hands and ensure that children get quality education that can make them competitive and capable of solving problems; if not the problems of the world, at least, their personal problems. It’s not a joke how much we have deteriorated because of the lack of it.
We are in court with the ministry of education today over levies not because we like going to court. It’s simply the only hope we have to ensure children in basic education in our State, stop paying any kind of fees or levy as the law says. We owe that duty to those who tomorrow, will answer the questions we cannot answer today.
Citizen Agba Jalingo is the Publisher of CrossRiverWatch and a rights activist, a Cross Riverian, and writes in from Lagos.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with
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