Posted by By Olubusuyi Adenipekun on
PARENTS of the over one hundred indigenes of Rivers State who were recently awarded scholarship to study at Kuban State University of Technology.....
*Want programme to continue
PARENTS of the over one hundred indigenes of Rivers State who were recently awarded scholarship to study at Kuban State University of Technology, Krasnodar, Southern Russia, have organised themselves into a formidable association known as Parents of Rivers State Students on Scholarship in Russia (PRSSSR) in order to present a united front in expressing their appreciation to Governor Peter Odili as well as to let him realise the need to impress it upon his successor come 2007 to continue with the educational programme.
This revelation came from Mrs Josephine Chuku-Igwe, a single parent of one of the awardees and secretary of the parents forum. According to her, the scholarship opportunity is a very laudable programme because it included the less-privileged, those who cannot afford to send their kids abroad, adding that Governor Odili is by this programme bridging the gap between the poor and the rich. 'We are particularly happy that our children are studying abroad because Nigeria's school system is not stable. So, we are planning to go and thank him and appeal to him for the continuation of the scholarship scheme," says Josephine.
Majority of these students on scholarship come from very poor families. There are those whose fathers are pensioners as well as those who are either primary or secondary school teachers with their mothers into petty trading, farming or outrightly jobless; while quite a number of them are being raised by widows whose husbands had been snatched by the cold hands of death some years back. For these parents, sponsoring their children in Nigerian universities has been a tall dream, not to talk of sending them abroad to study.
A probe into the family backgrounds of some of the awardees attest to Odili's quest to touch the lives of the poor masses even if the awardees were selected on merit following the highly competitive test they went through.
Ogochukwu Benson, 22, is one of the scholarship awardees who is studying electrical engineering Russia. He is from Akabuka in Ogba Egbema Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State. He was offered admission in 2003/2004 academic session to study Electrical and Electronics at Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt but he could not take up the offer because there was nobody to sponsor him.
His 70 year-old father, Benson Nwaeze, retired as a labourer from the Federal Ministry of Works in 1979 and has been 'living" on a meagre pension of N360 monthly. Things became worse for the family of eight children after Pa Nwaeze could no longer go to farm, living the task of feeding the family to his wife who was forced to take to peasant farming.
But, in spite of this financial predicament, Ogochukwu did not lose hope of going to the university. After he failed to take up the admission offer he got in 2004, he took Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) last year, hoping to get some of his relations or one of the oil companies in the Niger Delta to sponsor him.
He was still leaning on this hope when he heard the announcement of the scholarship on radio and he quickly applied for it. He subsequently sat for the examination and passed.
According to the younger brother of the awardee, Iheukwumere, who is studying Land Surveying at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology made possible by the Total Fina Host Community Scholarship Award which he got four years ago, it would have been impossible for Ogochukwu to go to the university without the scholarship given by the state government, adding that he himself is in the university because of the scholarship he earlier got which takes care of his school fees, feeding, textbooks and hostel accommodation.
Prince Agozie Amadi, 20, is another student studying oil and gas engineering in Russia. His father 47, Solomon Agozie Amadi teaches at Community Primary School, Imogu-Omagwa in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Amadi says of the scholarship award: 'Although I was able to send Prince to Nursery school here in Omerelu, then, primary school and the Government Army Secondary School, Elele, where he passed all his papers at the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) at a sitting, as a primary school teacher still on Level 10, I cannot dream of sending him to study in overseas when I will not even find sponsoring him here in Nigeria easy."
Amadi continues: 'Only God can reward both Governor Odili and Dr. Ngozi Odu, the Education Commissioner who accompanied the awardees to Russia. If they are selfish, they would have given the opportunity to their relations."
Twenty-two year old Mike-Oso Oso-Abo Kuruye is studying computer engineering in Russia. His father died on December 10, 2004 leaving Mike-Oso's mother, Anne, who teaches at Sea Shell Model Primary School, Port Harcourt, to cater for their five children.
Sobbing, Anne says of the heavy yoke she has been carrying since her husband died: 'Mike-Oso is the last born. Two of his siblings are already in the university. Things are so difficult for me to the extent that after getting the scholarship I have not been able to send him money for the laptop he requested for."
She continued: 'If all other governments have been offering this type of scholarship, the country would have been better for it. I cannot thank Governor Odili enough. I never thought any of my children could get scholarship to study abroad. The governor's initiative has taken me to another level entirely. He is a source of growth and happiness to the less-privileged. Nobody in my family has ever gone abroad to study. So, my boy has broken the record. I plead earnestly that this exercise should continue."
Chukmeka Chuku-Igwe, 20, who is currently studying oil and gas engineering at Kuban State University of Technology, had for long been nursing the ambition of overseas university education. This ambition was triggered off when he grew up and learnt that his father, Engineer Chimezie Chuku-Igwe, read Industrial Engineering in the United States of America. In fact, his father had promised to send him abroad.
But tragedy soon struck and the ambition of Chukmeka to go abroad got truncated when his father died in 2002. Although his mother, Josephine, is a deputy director in Rivers State Civil Service, she could not afford to send Chukmeka to study abroad because there are other children to cater for.
Chukmeka got a fresh hope when the scholarship was advertised and he quickly applied for it. According to his mother, everyone in the family knew that Chukmeka, the last born, would get the award because of his exceptional brilliance in mathematics and allied subjects. And he eventually got it, screaming and jumping for joy when he discovered his name was among the successful candidates.
Oduda Chigoum Kinikanwa, 21, is another awardee studying medicine in Russia. After his secondary education which he finished at Government Secondary School, Omerelu, Rivers State, in 2002, he sat for the JAMB-conducted UME twice, and twice his results were seized. He was still bemoaning his fate when the scholarship opportunity was advertised and he promptly applied for it.
His mother, Mrs Angelina Ordudah is jobless while her husband teaches at Government Secondary School, Rumuekpe, Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Angelina says of the state government's gesture: 'My husband does not have the money to sponsor the boy to read medicine in Nigeria, not to talk of abroad. I see Governor Peter Odili as the second redeemer."