Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a critique of the President Bola Tinubu administration, accusing it of “cruelly” abandoning over 1,600 Nigerian scholars stranded in foreign countries.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page on Sunday, the former presidential candidate described the plight of students under the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) as a national disgrace.
He alleged that the government has quietly killed the decades-old scholarship scheme, leaving Nigeria’s “brightest children” to face hunger, eviction, and even death in distant lands.
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The BEA, established in 1993 and revitalised in 1999, was designed to build Nigeria’s workforce through partnerships with nations like China, Russia, Morocco, and Hungary.
However, Atiku claimed that under the current administration, monthly stipends were slashed by 56%, dropping from $500 to just $220 in 2024.
He also alleged that payments stopped entirely throughout 2025, leaving students owed more than $6,000 each in accumulated arrears.
Atiku highlighted the human cost of the policy, citing the death of a Nigerian scholar in Morocco in November 2025—a tragedy he attributed to “quiet suffering.”
The situation has sparked outrage back home. Parents and scholars recently flooded the streets of Abuja, staging protests at the Ministries of Education and Finance.
Atiku noted that while parents sell assets and drown in debt to keep their children alive, the government has responded with “cold, technocratic explanations” about managing scarce public funds.
“To anxious parents, it sounded like expulsion by neglect,” Atiku remarked, criticising the Education Minister’s offer to fly “fed up” students back home.
“Abandoning years of study and shattered dreams is not a minor administrative detail.”
The BEA scheme, Atiku emphasised, was never a charity but a diplomatic pact rooted in shared progress.
He argued that the government is sacrificing its duty on the altar of convenience, turning Nigerian scholars into objects of pity among their African peers.
Atiku accused the government of abruptly discontinuing the programme without informing parents or considering the impact on the affected students’ education, describing the move as a lack of transparency.
He also said Nigeria was failing to honour its obligations under international diplomatic agreements.
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According to him, the decision had severe human consequences, with hunger, unpaid rent and worsening mental health becoming the daily realities faced by Nigerian students studying abroad.
Atiku stated that across distant campuses, these scholars are waiting for a sign that their country “still remembers them.”
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