Wada pays N201m scholarships to 60,000 students

Students in Kogi state are in for a good time as the Governor Idris Wada-led government commences the disbursement of N200.6 million scholarships.

Wada's Senior Special Assistant on Youth and Student Affairs, Comrade Matifo Precious, revealed this in Lokoja on Wednesday.

He said N100.6 million of the total sum is for undergraduate students studying at various universities in the country while the remaining N100 million will be disbursed to Kogi students studying at the Nigerian Law School (NLS).

Precious explained that 25,000 students have been paid a total of N30 million in the first tranche while the other students will be paid subsequently.

The scholarship will be warmly received, given that the governor has been severally criticised in the past for not taking education in the state seriously.

With the gubernatorial elections fast approaching and the emergence of a former Governor of the state, Prince Abubakar Audu, as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Wada will hope that the gesture will win the students to his side.

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Wada, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and an accomplished pilot, became Governor of Kogi State in 2011 and is seeking a second term in office.

He will need all the support he can get, considering that, in early September, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Kogi, Suleiman Abdullahi, threatened to go against him at the polls if the government does not pay the N32bn owed them in unpaid allowances.