Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the Federal Authorities for abandoning 1,600 Nigerian college students learning overseas underneath the Bilateral Schooling Contract (BEA) scholarship programme.
He made the assertion in a put up on his X account on Sunday.
Atiku’s feedback come as Nigerian BEA college students in Morocco report unpaid stipends.
The Former Vice President alleged that the programme was quietly discontinued underneath the present administration with out enough communication to folks or consideration for the scholars already enrolled, with every pupil being owed greater than $6,000 in unpaid stipends.
He disclosed that the scholars’ month-to-month stipends, which have been initially $500, weren’t paid in any respect in 2025.
“Between September and December 2023, the scholars weren’t paid, and in 2024, stipends have been slashed by 56%, from $500 to $220 a month, earlier than stopping altogether. There was no cost all through the entire of 2025,” he said.
Atiku mentioned that regardless of repeated pleas from college students and their mother and father, the federal government centered on coverage slightly than serving to the individuals affected.
What was initially described as a short lived five-year suspension to this system quickly metamorphosed into outright abandonment with empty pockets and fading hope.
He famous that this has compelled college students into day by day struggles with starvation, lease arrears, and social stigma. Atiku additionally highlighted the human value, citing the dying of a pupil in Morocco who didn’t survive the ordeal, dying in November 2025.
Atiku, talking on the latest assertion by the Minister of Schooling that college students who “fed up” may return dwelling, described the place as expulsion by neglect.
He argued that the place lowered years of educational effort to a minor administrative subject and amounted to expulsion by neglect.
He mentioned many mother and father interpreted the stance as Nigeria abandoning its brightest college students overseas and exposing them to embarrassment amongst friends from African international locations that proceed to honour their worldwide obligations.
Atiku highlighted that the BEA programme was by no means a charity however a diplomatic initiative designed to develop Nigeria’s workforce, revitalised in 1999 by partnerships with international locations together with China, Russia, Morocco, and Hungary.
“At this time, that pact lies damaged, and throughout distant campuses, Nigerian students wait, not only for stipends, however for an indication that their nation nonetheless remembers them,” he mentioned
In March 2025, the Union of Nigerian Bilateral Schooling Contract Students (UNBEAS) referred to as on the federal authorities to deal with delayed stipends and the 56% lower in funds affecting Nigerian college students learning overseas.
Nairametircs reviews that opposite to the supposed finish of the scholarship program, the federal authorities put aside N1.764 billion within the 2026 Appropriation Invoice to fund 300 contemporary scholarships for Nigerians underneath the Bilateral Schooling Contract (BEA) programme.