The Commonwealth
Youth Council has urged the President-elect, Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari
(retd.), to abolish foreign scholarships in the country after he assumes office
on May 29.
In a statement
issued by the CYC chairperson, Ahmed Adamu, in London on Saturday, the council
said close to N100bn is spent on foreign scholarships annually by the Federal
Government.
According to
Adamu, who is also an economic expert, the expenditure had resulted in the
abuse of the naira and triggered devaluation of the currency.
He said, “This
figure is extremely higher when adding the cost of other self-sponsored foreign
education programmes and I am using this medium to call on the Nigerian
President-elect to consider this as one of the immediate policies he will adopt
in the first 100 days in office.
“Nigerians and
other internationals studying in United Kingdom contribute 2.3 per cent to
Britain’s Gross Domestic Product growth and their patronages contribute 2.6 per
cent to the overall UK employment. How different are foreign universities from
Nigerian universities?
“We may talk about
access to energy, Information Technology, resources, facilities, conducive
atmosphere and efficiency, but all these can be provided in all Nigerian
universities with the savings that will eventuate from abolishing foreign
scholarships. If you divide N100 billion by the number of federal universities,
you will see that each university will get N2.5 billion a year.”
Abolish N100bn foreign scholarships, Commonwealth Youths tell Buhari
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, April 20, 2015
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