No more foreign scholarship for undergraduate students – Bayelsa State Govt decided

 The Bayelsa State Government has decided to stop “forthwith all foreign scholarships‎ at undergraduate level” to indigenes of the state as is the case with some states in the country.

Explaining the reason for the ban, the State Government said its action was a means of sending a “message” to parents of students on its scholarship scheme who have failed to appreciate its efforts.
The state government took the action in reaction to reports saying it allegedly neglected students from the state currently on scholarship at the Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, United States.

Reports had it that parents of the twenty one affected students ‎alleged that the state government refused to meet up with its obligation of paying their children’s school fees, a development that is now threatening their graduation from the prestigious institution.

However, the State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Jonathan Obuebite in a statement described such report as not only “false and malicious” but a “calculated attempt to blackmail and embarrass the Governor Dickson’s led restoration government.”

Obuebite maintained that the students were at no time abandoned as the state government has been in constant touch with the university.

The Commissioner stated that while other states have withdrawn their students due to financial constraints, the Bayelsa State government is “consistently funding scholarship programmes across various universities in Europe and America of which Lincoln University students are part of.”
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Assuring of its commitment towards building a strong educational sector, the state government stressed that there is no way it can shy away from sponsorship with the current students having less a month to complete their programmes.

The statement said, ” We view the claims and the manner it was widely publicized ‎as wicked and malicious. ‎This is a clear case of blackmail by the parents association, a campaign of calumny and a means to tarnish the image of the government and ridicule all its lauable achievements in the education sector”.

It added that the governor has already approved and authorized the release of the sum of two hundred million naira (#200, 000, 000.00) only to be paid to the institution.