TEXT OF ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT’S NYSC HONOURS AWARDEES DURING THE OCCASION OF THE WORLD PRESS CONFERENCE DELIVERDE BY THE ASSOCIATION’S PRESIDENT MRS, JEGEDE IMMUMONI SUZANNE ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018.

Gentlemen of the press, executive members of the association, fellow distinguished awardees; it is an Honour for me to welcome you to this press briefing that has been put together by the leadership of this association to address the media and the Federal Government on some salient issues.

2. The theme of this press briefing is: “DISREGARD FOR
PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE AS REGARDS THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NYSC PRESIDENT’S HONOURS
AWARDEES’ SCHOLARSHIP”

3. INTRODUCTION:
The President’s NYSC National Honours Award is a statutory award designed to reward excellence amongst young persons who have been adjudged remarkably outstanding during the mandatory service year via Community Development Service (CDS) and other programmes of the scheme. The award which is conferred annually by the President and Commander- in- Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is undoubtedly, the highest award conferred on young Nigerians in the country.

4. The association is a non-political, non-religious body that is primarily aimed at fostering National Development in Nigeria, which has its membership opened to all persons conferred with the Award.

5. OUR MISSION is to; sustain the spirit of hard work by way of identifying peculiar needs in various Nigerian communities, source for funds to meet such needs in form of Community Development Project for a better Nigeria. OUR VISION is; reaching out to the nooks and crannies of the society through Community development Services.

6. In line with the Federal Government’s policy of rewarding hard work, Excellence, leadership skills and exemplary qualities for outstanding NYSC Corps members who distinguished themselves during the mandatory one year National Youth Service, the Government in 2010, 2011 and 2015 awarded a post-Graduate scholarship to awardees.

7. It is a scholarship to study for Masters and PhD in any university in the world. The Federal Government gesture was aimed at building capacity for the youth, in the best institutions of their choice so that the distinguished awardees could use same knowledge for Nation Building, having shown such attitude through their selfless service to fatherland.

8. In 2015, a combined Award of 2012, 2013 and 2014, 164 Ex-Corps members who were painstakingly selected out of over 600, 000 Corps Members conferred with the Award. Consequently upon,the Petroleum Trust Development Fund PTDF selected 74 awardees for Masters and Ph.D Degrees, while they had completed Masters Degrees programmes and are currently running PhD Courses in Various Universities Overseas, 90 Awardees have been deliberately abandoned by the supposed Government agencies that are tasked to sponsor them.

9. Following series of agitation by the abandoned 90 awardees to secure justice by receiving their sponsorship letters and funding like their PTDF counterparts, who are fully enjoying the scholarship Award, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR ordered that Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), PTDF, NIMASA and Federal Scholarship Board should create a dedicated funding line and Sponsor the scholarship with immediate effect, as according to him, Time and Justice are of essence.

10. Since June 2016 when President Buhari issued the Order, the Various Agencies defiled the Directive as they all turned deaf ears to the presidential mandate. The affected awardees have lost Hundreds of thousands of their hard earned money in securing and losing admissions overseas, as well as struggle for the pursue of justice over what we feel as a clear display of “Nobodysm” meted on the awardees, who seem to lack a voice that will speak for them in this dilemma.

11. Gentlemen of the press, it may interest you to know that thousands of Nigerians have been leaving the Shores of this country yearly since then for overseas scholarship, most of whom are selected on recommendation from “people at the top” while these selfless youths who knew nobody but were so honoured for their hard work and excellence by an independent National selection committee, after a careful examination and consideration are ignored even after a presidential directive was issued. It is worrisome that that a P[residential directive which is tantamount to an order could be blatantly disregarded by the Agencies that Mr. President directly appoint their chief Executive. This gross act of insubordination negatively portray’s the Nation negatively locally and internationally.

12. The Chairman, senate committee on Youths and sports directed that the Federal Scholarship Board (FSB) should submit a budget draft to the National Assembly to work on, so as to clear all Categories of Awardees, but the Director of Federal Scholarship Board only worked on the Budget of 2010/2011 affected scholars and refused to submit that of 2012, 2013, 2014 awardees. We believe that the refusal by the Director to carry out the president’s Mandate and that of the senate president’s is a calculated attempt to thwart the process.

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the Petroleum Development Training Fund (PTDF) were to provide funds for this Scholarship Scheme while the National Universities Commission (NUC) was to act as the clearing house for the scholars under Tetfund.
13. Elsewhere, we have identified three main groups who have similar experiences of abandonment under disparate conditions and at different stages. In the first group, we have 16 NYSC scholars who resumed their PhD programmes at universities in the United Kingdom and the United States of America in 2014. Reports show that despite the full remittance of their funds to the National Universities Commission by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), covering their tuition, living expenses and travel fees for four years, it is unfortunate that these scholars are currently stranded abroad with a backlog of unpaid tuitions and living expenses ranging from 1 to 2 years.
14. All efforts to recover their funds have been futile. News published in the Nation Newspaper on 8th February, 2018 (pages 22&23) provides concrete evidence of the official transactions between Tetfund and NUC in a letter signed by one Mr Chris Maiyaki, who was the Director of Protocol and Special Duties of the NUC at the time but currently the Director of the Executive Secretary’s Office. These scholars are faced with survival crises as they have been surviving on menial jobs. They currently risk withdrawal and deportation back to Nigeria as a consequence, if their outstanding tuition fees and living expenses are not paid in earnest.
15. The second group of 11 awardees started their PhDs in 2015. They are also stranded in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Their tuition fees and living expenses have not been paid for over 2 years. The scholars in this category have written to the Senate which led to the consideration of their plight as a matter of National emergency. However, their problems remain unresolved. This has led to untold hardship for these scholars who are still struggling to fend for their families, house rents and school fees without approved fund from Tetfund, while reports reaching us daily suggest that there is a need for the intervention of Mr President to come to the aid of these scholars. We appeal to the Federal Government/ funding agencies to reach out to their respective Universities for reassurances regarding the payment of their fees and allowances.

16. CONCLUSION
We believe in the bullet effect of the Mass Media and the role of Journalists as the watchdogs of the society and the voice of the Voiceless. Therefore we seek the intervention of the federal government and relevant stakeholders to address the ugly development and also call the attention of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) to answer questions regarding the disregard to the Presidential order.

17. OUR PRAYERS
We urged the present administration to effect the following:
That letters of scholarship be released to the 90 awardees yet to be sponsored because their scholarship has been approved even by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari since June 2016.

The President May wish to order Various Agencies such as NPA, NIMASSA, PTDF an FSB to Urgently Act on his earlier directive by this Year’s academic calendar.
iii. We call on Mr President to please direct Professor Abdulrasheed Abubakar, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission to pay all the outstanding dues and fees of our stranded colleagues abroad immediately.
Vi. That Mr President should intervene in expediting the payment of the tuition fees and living expenses of the 11 scholars who are already studying for their PhDs in the United Kingdom and United States.
V. That Mr. President should direct the appropriate MDAs to resolve the uncertainties surrounding the funding of Masters and PhDs of the other awardees whose scholarships have been approved by the present administration.
Thank you.

Lalasticala or anyone who is the moderator here, pls do the needful. Cheers


Cc (moderators: farano, Rocktation)

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The report is in today's PUNCH. The link is .... http://punchng.com/fg-has-forgotten-us-since-2015-scholarship-awardees/

Hope the struggle yield better result