The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), awarded two Ebonyi State University Abakaliki student with N200,000 each, on Thursday.

The two beneficiaries are Chukwuemeka Ogar P, and Ms Onwe Emmanuella C. We’re finally year student of Medicine and Surgery at the EBSU.

Presenting the cheques to the students in Abakaliki, Dr. Okechukwu Igwenyi, the ASUU Chairman, Ebonyi State University chapter, stated the beneficiaries were selected based on some stringent but transparently determinable parameters.

He observed it was wrong to blackmail the ASUU as a body known for only strikes and industrial actions, adding “We are here to inform the public that apart from fighting for improved funding and protect the autonomy of universities, we also care for students by providing annual scholarship awards to successful indigent students from all the public universities in Nigeria.”

He said, “There is no gainsaying the fact that the ruling class is surreptitiously making education very expensive and unaffordable by common Nigerians. School fees, meals, consumables and other sundry expenses have become so expensive and beyond the reach of a common man such that students who refuse to drop out have been pushed into unthinkable ventures to stay on campus and acquire the necessary university education.

“The terrible excruciating economic conditions students and parents are subjected to, has occasioned a high rate of drop out of diligent and intelligent students due to poverty and frustration.

Igwenyi showed concerns over the deplorable conditions of students welfare, security and the depressed and unpredictable national economy which has compelled some students to seek for other distractive sources of income to afford their school fees and other basic needs.

“Currently, most students do not know what Bursary award by states and local governments , as it were , is all about and possibly do not understand that an ordinary student can win a scholarship or grant on merit.”

He added, “Our scholarships award scheme has been running for years and we provide research support presently to the tune of N500,000 as Ph.D Research Grant to selected members of ASUU in all public universities in Nigeria. Three of our members have benefitted from that scheme.

“Beyond our members, we also have our students in our plan. It is, therefore, imperative to mention now that over the years and as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, ASUU National Executive Council has been dispensing monies from our check-off deductions and offer the same as scholarship grants to selected indigent students across the country based on some stringent but transparently determinable parameters.”

He stated that, as a result, ASUU-EBSU has nominated some of its university’s students in recent years, and in most cases, these nominees have proven successful.

One of the recipients, Ms. Onwe Emmanuella, expressed her joy when she learned she had been chosen for the scholarship award, adding that the N200,000 will be used to pay off her overdue school fees.

She said, “I feel elevated, because I have waited for a long time for the outcome of the screening. And I’m surprised that at the end , it yielded results and I am happy about it.

With this scholarship, I am sure I will be able to offset my outstanding school fees that have been waiting for me for a long time now to pay ; and also, take care of other courses I am yet to register.”

According to the second awardee, Ogar Peter, “I am just too emotional to express what I feel over the scholarship. I am grateful to ASUU-EBSU chapter. I am also sure that this grant will go a long way at solving some of my basic needs in school.”