Umana’s N50,000 bursary: Great relief to parents, students

BY EFFIONG USORO

Since Akwa Ibom state was  created on September, 23 , 1987 it has had leaders , the good the bad and the ugly. Some of the leaders were prepared or ill prepared but had leadership thrust on them . Each of the leaders had his own concept of leadership and what constitute development. Today, Akwa Ibom has a person who prepared adequately to manage the affairs of the state as its chief servant . 

 

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Obong Umana Okon Umana has the ideas on how to provide meaningful development in all sectors of the state . Recognising that education is both a goal of development and means of achieving overall socio- economic growth, Obong Umana has promised that his administration would accord top priority to the educational sector. This is  explains why he has promised to pay each student of Akwa Ibom studying in tertiary institution in Nigeria the  sum of N50,000 as bursary every academic year. 

 

Citizens of Akwa Ibom who reacted to Umana’s promise to pay N50,000 bursary to students said such gesture would give financial relief to students and parents. According to them many brilliant students had dropped out of school because of lack of money to complete their studies. Also, some of the parents said that they had been strugling to pay their wards school fees studying in higher institution and expressed the hope that the  the N50,000 bursary promised by Umana  when implemented by his administration would reduce the financial burden on them. 

 

A cross section of students who also commented on the issue said they were delighted over the promise by Obong Umana to increase the current N5,000 bursary paid by the Akwa Ibom state government to N50,000 per academic year. The students stated that the improved bursary would assist them to pay their fees, procure necessary text books as well as other academic materials for their studies.