The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the National level has offered scholarship awards worth the sum of N2.4m to Twelve indigent students selected from Universities in the Bauchi Zone.
The awards were presented to the Twelve benefiting students by the Bauchi Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Prof Namu Timothy Aku assisted by the immediate past Zonal Coordinator, Prof Lawan Abubakar, at the end of its meeting held at the Sa’adu Zungur University (SAZU), Bauchi, on Saturday.
Each of the students received the sum of N200,000 as educational support to enable them to go through school without hitch.
Also, the Six Branches of ASUU in the Bauchi Zone announced their contributions to the scholarship scheme based on the peculiar needs of the beneficiaries.
In his message, Convener of the Grant, Scholarship, Publication Committee of ASUU, Prof Christopher Piwuna explained that, “Indigent students’ scholarship programme, as one of the responsibilities of the Grant, Research and Publications Committee, organized award programme for indigent students who are academically qualified, yet economically disadvantaged in our institutions.”
Represented by the Immediate Past Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Bauchi Zone, Prof Lawan Abubakar, the Convener stated “The Committee from the last NDC has carried out two sets of indigent scholarships for award. The selection process is conducted from the branches after which the successful candidates are sent to the National.”
He added, “For the 2023 set, a total of 160 successful applications and for 2024, we had a total of 164 successful applicants pulled from 79 branches of the Union.”
According to him, “Between these two sets, the Union through the Committee, gave the scholarship to the tune of N64, 800,000.”
“Additionally, the scholarship was instituted by NEC, at the Gombe NEC Meeting of 2018. Our Union has been managing the Gani Fawehinmi scholarship for years, we decided to not only organise that of Chief Gani but institute our own,” he added.
The Convener added that “This creation was also shaped by the government’s unrelenting attacks on students and their parents through “school charges.”
Christopher Piwuna concluded that “When we argued that NELFUND scholarship should be a grant, we meant it, because we are not asking any parent or beneficiary of our indigent support to repay at a later day.”
Speaking earlier, Bauchi Zone Coordinator of ASUU, Prof Namu Timothy Aku, said that the Bauchi Zone of ASUU has Six Branches in University of Jos (UniJos), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, Federal University of Kashere (FUK), Gombe State University (GSU), Plateau State University, Bokkos and Sa’adu Zungur University (SAZU).
After tracing the history of ASUU, he stated that, “When the political situation of Nigeria changed, we had no option but to change too in order to align with the political situation. Apart from being Staff club and socializing, we have to begin to think very deeply on how we can run the Union for the benefit of not only ourselves but for the Nigerian system of education at the higher level and particularly to impact the society and the country.”
According to him, “In the 1990s, it was glaring that Nigeria is no longer paying attention to education, then ASUU began to raise its voice to let the world know what is happening to the tertiary education in particular and other sectors of governance.
He stressed that the reason behind the scholarship scheme is to ensure that indigent students were not denied education just because of lack of money and opportunity to be in school.
He then advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the opportunity to better their lives and have time to study and graduate in order to be good citizens of the country.
The Chairperson, ASUU, University of Jos, disclosed that the Branch instituted the award by paying the tuition fees for two awardees.
In the same vein, SAZU Branch of ASUU has awarded N100000 each to two students same for Plateau State University, Bokkos, the Federal University of Kashere too is planning to give two indigent students to two students.
For the Gombe State University, five students have benefited from the scheme by receiving 50 per cent of their tuition fees while Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi branch will share the sum of N500,000 with the selected students.
In his remarks, the immediate past Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Bauchi Zone, Prof Lawan Abubakar commended the National leadership of ASUU for the scholarship scheme which he said will provide opportunity for indigent students to pursue their education dreams.
A parent who spoke on behalf of other parents commended ASUU for introducing the scheme saying that it came as a relief to the parents who were finding it difficult to pay their children through school.
One of the recipients, Bappa Salisu, spoke on behalf of the recipients assuring that the scholarship will go a long way in complementing what they are getting from their parents and the menial jobs they engage in to pull through school.
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