By Ayodele Oni, Akure
National President of National Association of Ondo State Students, (NAOSS), Kikiowo Ayoade, has pleaded with Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to offset, almost, five years of outstanding bursary to students of higher Institutions who are indigenes of the state.
He disclosed to Newsmen in Akure that successive administrations in the state had failed to meet their obligations to pay students bursary and scholarship awards.
According to him, “the last time this payment was made dates back to 2015. Since then, several administrations of the National Association of Ondo State Students have religiously agitated the revival and disbursement of bursary to students.
“The closest to this was in 2019 when my predecessor in office successfully moved for the registration of Ondo state students.
“Statistics from this registration showed that 6,427 Ondo state students out of 14,878 students completed their registration.
“This administration, then, inherited this movement at inception and has actively pursued the payment of bursary since then. In January, we met with the Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, who promised the disbursement of bursary soon.
“Series of letter was written to the Governor, since our first meeting in January, to officially communicate our plight and the dearth of payment.
“In August, when this promise was yet to be fulfiled, we consulted the Commissioner for Education and the Management of the Scholarship Board; all these consultations failed.
“We have waited eight months since we received the promise and yet, no single student of Ondo state has received payment. It is indeed sad to recognize that the whole budget required to pull this off is N60 million.
“While we understand the several bottlenecks of running a government, we hold our position that budgeting sixty million naira for students for over eight months is nothing but overdue.
“Payment for the bursary is overdue and students of Ondo state and their financiers, especially coming off the back of a pandemic, could be greatly relieved, even as some schools gear to resume in the country.
“We call on the Ondo state government, once again, to recommit to the students populace of the state by fulfilling its eight months old promise of disbursing bursary.”
Akeredolu will be facing a re-election on October 10 for his second term in office. The students seem to have calculated and seen this period his most vulnerable, and so most appropriate time to ask him to pay their bursary
