Nasarawa Lawmaker Gives N7m Scholarship To 600 Students

The member representing Akwanga South in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Hon. Kassim M. Kassim, yesterday, gave scholarship worth N7 million to 600 students of tertiary institutions in his constituency.

The event which took place at the convocation square of College of Education, Akwanga, also witnessed the distribution of over 2000 wrappers to women especially the widows and the poor.

Hon. Kassim explained that the gesture was aimed at mitigating the hardship parents face in sending their children/wards to school after the yuletide season, adding that the current economic downturn which has taken a harsh toll on poor parents needs palliatives from well meaning individuals and groups in the society.

The lawmaker who encouraged politicians to adopt frugal lifestyles in order to assist the needy and engender collective wealth, maintained that WAEC and NECO fees of 44 final year students in various secondary schools in his constituency whose parents could not afford to pay had been settled.

The chairman of the occasion and governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, said the gesture was in tandem with the change agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari and urged politicians to strive to meet their constituents at their points of need.

Okorocha, who was represented by his chief of staff, Chief Uche Nwosu, said the Rochas Okorocha Foundation would foot 50 per cent of the total sum, noting that education is the pillar for national growth.

Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, who was also represented by his chief of staff, Hon. Danazimi Mohammed, explained that the Nasarawa State government has concluded arrangement to commence online registration for all eligible students for the 2015/2016 academic session.

Al-Makura who commended the lawmaker noted that the education sector got the highest allocation of N17 billion.

A beneficiary, Bridget Gimson, a single mother of English/French Department of the College of Education, Akwanga, said the gesture came to her as a great relief and called on the state government to further subsidize the cost of education, especially by halting the compulsory purchase of handouts by students.

Credit: Leadership News