SEVENTEEN indigent students of the University of Ibadan have won scholarships that will cover their studentship from 200-level to graduation.
The students, who are from 10 of the 13 faculties of the premier university, received the awards from the Olufemi Olaifa Memorial Foundation during a memorial lecture of the late Otun Balogun Olubadan of Ibadanland, High Chief Olufemi Olaifa, held last week at the Trenchard Hall of the institution.
The foundation’s coordinator, Mr Omotayo Olaifa, said the major criteria for the award, which covers tuition and accommodation, were indigence and excellent academic grade which must not be less than Second Class Upper division.
According to Mr Olaifa, it is unthinkable that brilliant Nigerian students who are gifted will be denied the right to education because of their poor economic status.
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Speaking at the event, the Dean of Students, Professor A. T. P. Ajuwape, thanked the foundation for the gesture and urged more Nigerians to invest in education so as to increase access for brilliant but poor students.
Ajuwape noted that the poor economic conditions in Nigeria were increasing the number of students who are unable to pay their tuition and sustain themselves in the university, saying this was not good for the future leaders of the country to experience.
“It is pathetic now than before. We have more students who are not able to pay fees. They cannot feed properly in school and they come to you with all sorts of requests. I think what this foundation has done is to invest in excellence and keep the dreams of these brilliant students alive. Poverty should not cut the dreams of the gifted. Other philanthropists in Nigeria and abroad are enjoined to follow suit and assist the university,” Ajuwape stressed.
