No fewer than 2, 536 Niger Delta youths are at present pursuing undergraduate degrees across the world the Presidency has said.
Accordibg to the Head of Education Unit, Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Eugene Abels, the development was born out of the resolve of the Presidency to make use of formal education as a tool to create “Niger Delta assets.”
He spoke at an orientation organised for 160 new beneficiaries of the Federal Government scholarship scheme for students from the oil-producing region which was held in Lagos.
Abels said the initiative spearheaded by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku, would ensure that the youth study in acclaimed institutions of higher learning overseas.
According to him, 138 of them will be pursuing first degrees in the United States while the remaining 22 beneficiaries have secured admission to study in the United Kingdom.
The selection of the America-bound students followed a “standardisation process” put in place in conjunction with the United States Pathway Programme of the Kaplan International Colleges.
He said, “Niger Delta students on the Federal Government scholarship scheme are currently on all continents of the world except Antarctica. No fewer than 2,536 Niger Delta students are spread all over the world and still counting.”
A welcome development. Education is the ultimate.