An Open Letter To Education Minister:
Hello Honourable Minister of Education,
Sir, it is no news anymore that Nigeria is involved in Bilateral Education Agreement(BEA) with some other nations of the World. This has been in existence a very long time ago, even when the fallen USSR existed.
The aim of this programme is very good and laudable. According to its goal, it is purposed at helping young, brillant and talented Nigerians who cannot afford quality foreign education to acheive their aims. Quite impressive!
Honourable Minister, kindly permit me to bring to your sensitive notice that there are some inadequacies in the application, nomination and selection processes.
Around this time last year, February precisely, Application for the 2013/2014 BEA Award was called and several interested Nigerians including myself innocently and joyously applied. We had the screening and test in late March, 2013. To my greatest surprise, the results of the test we wrote is yet to be out, we know nothing about the whole programme application since then! Infact, all the initial means of reaching the officials of the Federal Scholarship Board went off (via Phone, E-mail, Website).
Surprisingly, a couple of days ago, I saw another advert calling for application for the 2014/2015 programme. Sir, do you not think the whole process is just too cloudy and not transparent?
It took me a very long time to decipher what was actually wrong. From what I later got to know, any applicant who does not have at least an ‘Oga at the top’ is just wasting his/her time and money to apply. I believe some applications are still been selected based on merit but I can categorically confirm to you that a larger percentage(85%) of the selected is based on the ‘Who-Know-Who’ ideology.
Sir, in a time like this that we are all hoping and seriously trying to propagate the transformation agenda of the Presidency, it will be highly disheartnening and criminal if dark things like this still thrive successfully under your leadership. I suggest you look into this and act very fast before it is too late.
A complete overhauling of the whole process will be a very great and effective cure to the deep infected programme system. We need a very lucid and transparent application and nomination processes to salvage the poor and average Nigerians from this continued indirect extortion.
I hope and pray for your timely intervention sir.
Thanks.
Cc:
Minister of Education,
State Minister of Education,
Federal Ministry of Education,
Director, Federal Scholarship Board,
Federal Scholarship Board,
The Presidency,
House Committee on Education,
House Committee on Anti-Corruption National Ethics and Values,
National House of Assembly,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Involved Countries In The Bilateral Education Agreement Programme, Concerned Nigerians.