One of the hallmarks of a good government is the ability to meet the needs of its citizens as at when deemed fit. This is sine qua non to the betterment of any democracy in the world whether it is being practiced at the federal, state or grassroot level.
In 2017, the indigenous students of Kogi state across the federation registered for the annual Scholarship Scheme otherwise known as Bursary orchestrated by the state government. A system that provides source of livelihood to the beneficiaries during their study year in the higher institutions across the country.
It would be recalled that, the registration fee allotted for the exercise was fixed at the rate of N650.00 per student. The payment, which was done online through interswitch mode of transaction and other various options made available allows the students to be bonafide beneficiaries of the supposed Scholarship Scheme provided by the state government.
Meanwhile, the New Direction government under the watch of His Excellency, Alh. Yahaya Bello had earlier paid about 85% of the students who registered the previous year (2017) a token of N15, 000.00 for Law and Medical students while other category of students received N11, 200.00 on 23rd of May, 2018 to be precised. This indeed was a welcome development on the part of the students, and the Governor in person of Yahaya Bello got a big applause for such a philanthropic move by his administration.
However, the narrative began to change dimension as soon as the students perceived the scheme as a way of gaining their goodwill particularly in relation to the forthcoming guber election in the state. This has led many public commentators and analysts within and outside the state to resolve at the saying “Who pays the pipe, dictates the tune” because the premium value placed on bursary payment could not longer be envisaged as true within the confines of the scheme.
Bursary as the English dictionary succinctly put, is a monetary award made by an authority in return for the grant the individual is usually obligated to be given while studying at a period of time. Grant in this context suggests a transfer of property by deed or writing; especially, an appropriation or conveyance made by the government as a grant of property or of money; also, the deed or writing by which the transfer is made. This simply tells us that the payment of bursary in this context ought not to be optional but a matter of necessity that every responsible government in line with its mandatory obligation to the citizenry must do liberally.
Unfortunately, the modern terminology for ‘bursary’ in this part of the world rather suggests an act of ‘I pay you, you pay me back’ (i.e the payer expects to get a favour in return for the bursary paid to the payee) instead of the normal obligation that the government ought to fulfill without any hidden motive attached.
The system has been bastardised so much so that we see the perceived abnormalities as normal while the normalities are alien to our culture. Oh! What a mumbo-jumbo! At this juncture, it is safe to say that, the true identity of bursary has been lost, and those that should clamour for a paradigm shift are the major perpetrators of this very unholy act.
To put into perspective, the students across the country took to the social media handles recently with the question on the bear ‘So, where is the bursary?’ to press home their displeasure over what they felt as ‘impeachment of their fundamental rights’, and also beckoned on all the stakeholders concerned to come to their rescue. This everyone believes to be a just course that should bring all together irrespective of political affiliations, religious beliefs, class, status, ideologies or norms to fight against the perceived injustice. The students ought to enjoy the dividend of democracy by getting what is constitutionally right to them as at when deemed fit, and shouldn’t be something optional for the government of the day to decide at will.
Without mincing words, I write to draw the attention of the state government to the pressing issue at stake, which should be taken with kid glove if only the goodwill of the students must be well earned. Thus, the quest for good governance will not be achieveable until the needful is done to tackle the root of the problem that must be reconciled around the payment of the supposed bursary allowances or the refunding of the students’ hard earned money spent during the registration process alternatively.
– Arogbonlo Israel
