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| Gov. Uduaghan |
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| Senator Richard Ochei |
ADA DIKE
Some
students of Delta State origin who are recipients of the annual bursary also
known as Delta State Students’ Special Assistant Scheme have eulogised the
Delta State Government led by His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the
Commissioner for Higher Education, Professor Hope Eghagha and the management
team at the state’s Bursary and Scholarship Board.
Speaking
to newsmen recently, the National Senate President of the National Association
of Delta State Students (NADESSTU), Senator Richard Ochei, said he has been
benefiting from the bursary from 200 level.
He
shares his perception about the bursary, “It was manual bursary in 2010 when I
was in year one, so the board came on with the Commissioner for Higher
Education, Professor Hope Eghagha and decided to innovate, saying that the time
of analogue had gone. They set up the E-bursary unlike when they used to pay
the money in schools. So they asked everyone to open an account in banks and urged
every student to register online and put their details there. Then after the
necessary verifications and the schools confirm that the students were not
fake, they paid the money into our accounts,” Ochei explained.
Commenting
on the online registration, the 400 level student of Public Administration in
Anambra State University, Uli, Anambra State, further said that in everything
there must be a challenge. “Being done electronically, it is normal for one to
have network problems emanating from the network providers. In the real sense
of it, if one follows the instructions written down, one would find it easy,
except those who are not familiar with anything online.”
On
the issue of multiple registrations by some students, the NADESSTU president
hinted that “At times some students would want to register their girlfriends or
sisters and also may try to double register, but the Delta State Government,
Commissioner for Higher Education and scholarship board curtailed that due to
the new system of online registration. The challenge we (students) have is the
delay by the government in releasing the fund. We have written a communiqué
appealing to government to make the fund available to us on time.
“We
heard a rumour that some people said they were fake names on the list but I
didn’t believe that because if it were true, they would complained to the
national level of Delta Students’ association to look into. They wouldn’t have
gone on air or published such unconfirmed rumour which may be embarrassing to
Delta State Government which releases funds for students from the state to
expand their horizon in terms of education. Students supposed to report their
challenges to the NADESSTU, though some of them can be very funny in the sense
that some of them contract their registration to someone and pay him two
thousand naira to get endorsement from their local government and sometimes we
come across some students trying to buy four scratch cards to register for the
bursary. You find out that a particular student tried to register his or her
name four times. In a case whereby such a student did not find his or her name
in any list, he or she shouldn’t blame anybody or the board.
“These
elements went about alleging that the board and the Commissioner for Higher
Education have defrauded the board by inserting 23,000 names. There is no truth
in that. So we frown at such a lie.”
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| Mr. Agbanashi Obinne |
Also
speaking, NADESSTU National President 2010/2011Mr. Agbanashi Obinne eulogised
Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, Prof. Hope Eghagha and the management scholarship board
for considering Delta State students in human capital project through bursary
scheme and different forms of scholarship schemes. He thanked them for their
magnanimity in making many students beneficiaries of the scheme. “Through these
schemes, the government is encouraging Delta State to be the best in their
academic pursuit. So I see bursary as a relief for students from the government
and helping the students, economically.”
He
believes that “If there is a little problem students encounter while
registering, it is now easier for them and the board in checking fraud and
multiple registration. The scholarship board are operating open door policy by
requesting for the list of Delta State students from Joint Admission and
Matriculation Board in order to ascertain bonafide students from the state. It
may look like a problem for students who did pre-degree without sending their
names to JAMB office for regularisation. It is now left with schools’ Dean of
Students Affairs to prove the bonafide students of their schools before the
board pays the students money into their accounts.
“The
state is not trying to frustrate anybody but working to remove racketeers from
causing confusion. The NADESSTU people who went to Lagos to apprehend Ezenwani
have been on the fore front to warn students not to give money to anybody to
get bursary but when Ezenwani, who has been extorting some students discovered
that his source of illicit business has been closed, he organised a few people
to defame the Commissioner for Higher Education and the board.”
Obinne
also accused Ezenwani of parading himself as a regular student just to extort
money from students. “I could remember when I was collecting bursary of five
thousand naira from the state. After the era, students have migrated to
electronic registration and are lucky that they are being paid twenty thousand
naira each per session.
”There
is another aspect I wish to comment on, it is the amount of the money Delta
Government gives to first class students from the state. I made 2.1 {Cumulative
Grade Point Average), though I supposed to make first class but I did not due
to distractions I had. I believe that if I will do better when I go back for my
Master’s degree,” Obinne said.
He advised Delta State students to appreciate
the kind gesture they are receiving from the board and urged them to shun
defaming people’s reputation.
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| Senator Richard Ochei |
In
the same vein, Personal Adviser to Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor Uduaghan
on Students Affairs, Comrade Umukoro Stanley, was of the opinion that Delta
State scholarship board has put in so much effort to ensure that genuine
students apply and receive bursary from the state. “Initially, registration was
done through analogue but now it’s done electronically. I remember vividly a
particular time when registration was cumbersome. Actually, I have always
advised people to desist from committing fraud.”
He advised desperate students who pay money to
agents to register them to learn how to use computer and do it themselves. It
is easy! Even market women these days use computer so it baffles me when I
heard that some students contracted someone to register for them and later got
swindled. Nobody taught me how to use laptop. They are many challenges now in
this scheme because some names some students used in registering are different
from their account numbers. If not for the state government being thorough in
ensuring that students follow the right steps while registering for bursary, a
lot of things would have been messed up,”
Stanley enthused.
Former South East Coordinator of NADESSTU,
Comrade Felix Efeni, said he benefitted from the scheme in 2004/2005, a period
he lost his mother and added that the bursary was the major source of money he
had that time.
“Delta
State bursary is the best scheme for student in the country. I benefitted from
it, my wife and my younger also benefitted from it. The only challenge we had
then was, there were some fraudulent students who had access to the registrar
of the school, so when the state’s scholarship board sent the list to the
school, since the right students didn’t have access to that list, the
fraudulent students removed the names of the original students and add fake
names, there by hindering the real students from getting their money. There
were some occasions we would open a newspaper and see our names on the list but
when we get to our schools, our names would not be there. The staff of the
board suffered in my hands because any time I didn’t see my name in the list, I
mobilised students and stormed the board office in Asaba and stampede them. We
felt bad when we discovered that the fault wasn’t from the board but from the
fraudulent student leaders. We then fought with some of the students’ leaders
and some of them ran away.
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| Comrade Felix Efeni |
“Some
of them even used graduates’ passport photos or names to register many names
and collected the money. For example, one of my cousins that graduated in
Obafemi Awolowo University was surprised when someone called and told her that
she saw her passport photo but different name as one of the bursary recipients
in Unilag. Some of the fraudsters go to photo studios and collect passport
photos their owners didn’t collect to register for bursary.”
Efeni
maintained that someone told him that Mr. Ambrose Ezenwani was the master
minder of such fraud. Apart from other security measures, the sim card registration
telecommunications companies introduced, according to him, has to some extent
become an impediment for the fraudster to do multiple registrations.
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