11 months ago
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The Henry Seriake Dickson Foundation has presented scholarship grants to over 859 students in tertiary institutions of learning under its Education Support Scheme, which started last year.
The beneficiaries were drawn from the two local governments that make up Bayelsa West senatorial district – Sagbama and Ekeremor – as well as the other six local government areas of the state and Ijaw land.
The categories of beneficiaries are undergraduates, 300; high flyers – Bayelsans on first-class and second class upper standing, 328; candidates on Master’s degree programmes, 79; candidates on PhD programmes, 45; Nigerian Law School students from the three senatorial districts of Bayelsa, 80, among others.
Speaking during the presentation ceremony at the King Kpadia Mein Square, Toru-Orua, in Sagbama Local Government Area, the governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, commended Senator Dickson for his vision and love for education.
Diri, represented by his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said his administration was building on the educational foundation laid for the state by Dickson when he was governor of the state.
He said, “We attach equal importance to education as our predecessor. That’s why we are building on all the foundations he laid and none has been distorted.”
Noting that the former governor, who now represents Bayelsa West in the National Assembly, established no fewer than eight higher institutions with education development policies, Diri described him as “a visionary, dependable and resourceful man.”
The governor congratulated the beneficiaries, and urged them not to squander the grants, but study hard and use the money for their education in order for the objectives of the initiative to be achieved.
In his remarks, the founder of the HSDF, Dickson, said all selected undergraduate beneficiaries would receive N40,000 each; Master’s degree students, N50,000 each; PhD candidates, N100,000 each and law school students, also N100,000 each.
He informed that the scholarship grants were a token given out by the Foundation to underscore its abiding commitment to human capacity development, adding that in 2023, the beneficiaries were from Bayelsa West only.
The senator, while congratulating the beneficiaries, explained, “But, you know, as a former governor and one of the key leaders of our state, we consulted and came to the conclusion that something good coming out from me has to find a way of percolating to the other parts of the state, which have also invested in our leadership over the years, and still do.
“So, today, in this year’s event, we have beneficiaries almost equal the number drawn from the six other local government areas of our state and a few other beneficiaries from Ijaw land as I used to do as governor.”
In their separate speeches, the chairman of HSDF Education Support Scheme, Prof Barclays Ayakoroma; chairman of the occasion, Fidelis Agbiki; and the royal father of the day, King Seiyifa Koroye, advised the beneficiaries to take their studies seriously and justify their qualifications for the scholarship grants.
