Scrapping foreign scholarships in order — ASUU

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has lauded the Federal Government for scrapping foreign university scholarship scheme for Nigerian students, saying the action is in order.

The National President of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this in an exclusive interview with Nigerian Tribune when asked for his reaction on the matter.

He said, “ASUU is in full support of the scrapping of the foreign scholarship scheme by the Federal Government,” giving some reasons for the union’s stance.

According to him, foreign scholarships should be two-way traffic.

He said, “It is expected that as our students are going abroad to study, foreigners should also be coming to Nigeria to study. That is what bilateral relations is all about—you give me this and I give you that.”

Decrying the previous arrangement, he argued that, “It is unheard of that, over the years, we’re the only ones going to other countries to study without them coming to our country.”

Describing such an arrangement as a waste, Osodeke noted that ASUU’s advocacy all along from government at both the federal and state levels is for them to bring our universities to a standard they too can attract foreign students and lecturers.

“They can do this by investing even the money they used on foreign scholarships, no matter how small, in our own universities and make them a world-standard.

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“So, let the government use just five years to attend to challenges facing our public universities by equipping them with necessary infrastructures and equipment, pay the lecturers and other university workers living wages, make the environment conducive and so forth, we will all see the level of development that such investment will bring into our education and other sectors of the economy.”