Atiku Faults Tinubu Over Plight of Nigerian Scholars Abroad

 

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has strongly criticised the Federal Government over what he described as the abandonment of Nigerian students benefiting from the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship scheme.

Atiku accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of mishandling the programme, leaving about 1,600 Nigerian scholars stranded abroad without stipends or institutional support.

In a statement posted on his verified X (formerly Twitter) account on Sunday, the former Vice President said the BEA scheme—initiated in 1993 and revitalised in 1999—was designed to strengthen Nigeria’s human capital through educational partnerships with countries such as China, Russia, Morocco and Hungary.

He lamented that the scheme had been “quietly discontinued” under the current administration, resulting in unpaid stipends now exceeding $6,000 per student.

According to Atiku, the government justified the suspension on grounds of fiscal constraints, a position he described as “cold” and “technocratic,” arguing that it reduced human lives to mere statistics.

“What was initially described as a temporary five-year suspension gradually metamorphosed into outright abandonment,” he said.

“About 1,600 young Nigerians have been left stranded abroad with empty pockets and fading hope.”

He revealed that students were unpaid between September and December 2023, while in 2024, their monthly stipends were reduced by 56 per cent, from $500 to $220, before payments stopped completely in 2025.

Atiku added that the situation had forced many students into severe hardship, with hunger, unpaid rent and social humiliation becoming their daily reality.

He further disclosed that a Nigerian scholar in Morocco reportedly died in November 2025, an incident he said turned “quiet suffering into public grief.”

The former Vice President also criticised the response of government officials to protests by affected parents in Abuja, alleging that a minister suggested students could return home if they were “fed up”.

He described the comment as “defiance dressed as policy.”

Atiku stressed that the BEA scheme was never intended as a welfare programme but as a strategic diplomatic investment in Nigeria’s future workforce.

“The BEA was rooted in shared progress and mutual benefit,” he said.

“Today, that pact lies broken, and Nigerian scholars across distant campuses are waiting—not just for stipends, but for reassurance that their country still remembers them.”

The controversy has continued to generate reactions from student bodies and education stakeholders, with calls mounting on the Federal Government to urgently resolve the crisis and honour its obligations under the BEA agreement.