Loading ...Luck smiled on 76 indigent students of Kanam Local Council of Plateau state as the Yibaikwal Education Foundation (YEF) gave them scholarships.
Students of the locality studying various courses in tertiary institutions within and outside the state were presented the scholarships last Saturday at Dengi, the council headquarters, by Dr. Abdullahi Yibaikwal Shehu, who runs the foundation.
Shehu said it has been his desire to make meaningful contribution to educational development starting from his local council so as to contribute to human development.
“I observed with interest the kind of suffering our people are going through and I thought what is the essence of life if you cannot help the less-privileged so for the past two years, I started saving in order to give a helping hand to those in need”, he said.
Speaking at the occasion, the chairman of Kanam local council, Dr. Saleh Mohammed represented by his deputy, Sule Kantana, said the gesture was “timely and long awaited.
He appreciated Shehu’s efforts and called on other sons and daughters of the locality to emulate him.
He said government has done much in terms of education by “procuring admission for 22 students in colleges of education, sponsoring under-privileged students in NTI to the tune of N1.6m, paying counterpart funding for UBE community based project” among others.
In a lecture titled: Education for self development” delivered by the Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede urged that “education should not be given to people as a means of getting a white collar job but for self development” so that “every educated individual could become an agent of societal development because abject poverty and crass ignorance are the bane of our society”.
Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mustapha Abdullahi expressed their appreciation to their benefactor saying “we lack the exact word to use in describing how we feel. All we can say is, thank you so much sir and may God bless you”.
Dignitaries present at the event include the SSG, Nde Samson Dimka, who represented the governor, Minister of Police Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Lame, Lt. Gen. Jeremiah Useni who was the chairman of the event, Emirs of Kanam and Wase councils among others who also made their contributions to support the Foundation.
Popularity: 5% [?]
