The Presidential Amnesty Programme has deployed more than 140 beneficiaries for post-graduate studies in universities across the United Kingdom.
The beneficiaries, who were awarded foreign scholarships under the PAP formal education scheme, were officially briefed during a pre-departure orientation ceremony held at the PAP headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.
Speaking at the event, the Administrator of PAP, Dr Dennis Otuaro, said the deployment was part of efforts to strengthen human capital development in the Niger Delta and across Nigeria. He explained that the move was also in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the region.
According to him, the students were placed in competitive and professional courses designed to contribute to socio-economic advancement. “If you put the number of beneficiaries we are deploying today together, over 140, all of them are going for post-graduate studies in universities in the United Kingdom,” Otuaro said.
“We are confident that when they complete their studies and return, they will add value to the socio-economic advancement of the Niger Delta, and the human capacity resource of the region will be enriched. They will add value to our communities, the region, and the nation.”
At the ceremony, brand new laptops were distributed to the scholarship recipients to support their research and academic work abroad. Otuaro said the intervention was a deliberate step to reduce the human capital development gap in the Niger Delta. He noted that the students were not just beneficiaries of foreign education but future contributors to national growth.
“What we are doing today is a deliberate effort to take the development agenda of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, to the people in the communities of the Niger Delta,” he said. “When the President appointed me last year, he gave me a mandate and that is to take this programme to the people. That is what we are doing.”
He advised the beneficiaries to focus on their studies and resist distractions while abroad. “This foreign post-graduate scholarship deployment takes cognizance of professional areas that are industry-competitive. We also deploy beneficiaries for other programmes in-country,” Otuaro added.
Other officials also spoke at the orientation programme. The Technical Assistant to the PAP Administrator, Edgar Daniel; the Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army, Maj. Gen. M.O. Erebulu; and the Head of PAP’s Education Department, Dr Charles Ariye, delivered talks on the social and cultural aspects of studying in the UK and Europe, the diplomatic and security issues students may face abroad, and the academic demands of studying in the UK.
Some of the scholarship beneficiaries expressed gratitude to the programme. Gift Gbaminido and Amadimati Greatman thanked the PAP Administrator for the opportunity, promising to make good use of it and to serve as worthy ambassadors of their families, communities, and the Niger Delta.
