11th March, 2011
On Tuesday, 8 March 2011, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, the Deputy Senate Leader, attained the age of 55Â to mark this auspicious moment, he did not engage in the traditional party fanfare and merriment which many expected, but took time to hand out 60 undergraduate and 20 post graduate scholarships to students of tertiary institutions from the six council wards of the central Senatorial District of Cross River State which he represents.
The scholarship awards, which more or less, serve as the flagship of his representation, have been his passion since his early days in the Senate in 2003. This year’s award, (2010/2011) brings the total number of beneficiaries since 2003 to 240 under graduates and 38 for post graduate studies . These awards, he said, have gulped N41million on strictly graduate and post graduate studies outside the yearly financial assistance to students in the law school and seminary from the catchment area.
His overriding objective for enunciating the scholarship scheme and other commitments in education, Senator Ndoma-Egba said, is principally to enhance the acquisition of knowledge.
“In my time in the university, we had a lot of opportunities, but it is no longer so as the environment is now different. Unlike in the past when employers chase the graduate, a throng of graduates now chase very few jobs, which are very competitive to get because they are in the private sector. I am supporting those who seek to acquire knowledge. Today may be an era of sorting and you can sort yourself through school but then when you get to the market, the market would sort you out,†he said.
He said his desire is to see people from his senatorial district competing and succeeding with the best across the world. That is why the scholarship board ensures that the beneficiaries take their studies seriously and each beneficiary has to have a cumulative grade point of 2.5 which places him on the second class upper grade other wise the award is suspended until the person improves.
“The scholarship is not to score cheap political point. Those who have affected me did not do it out of politics and I should not use my effort in affecting the lives of my people as a cheap political point,†he said.
On the criticism from people that if the scheme is for the people of the Central Senatorial District, why hold the award in Calabar, he said 99.99 percent of the students of who apply for the scholarship school outside their home with over 60 percent of them in Calabar.
“It is imperative I bring the award centre close to them and not to where they will spend money to get to,†he said.
He said he chose to mark his birthday by awarding scholarship because that is the greatest way to affect humanity as knowledge is the cradle for human and societal development.
“At 55 I do not have any health issue, none what so ever and God has given me one great gift – contentment. When I see somebody whom I have never met before come up to me and say I was a beneficiary of the Victor Ndoma Egba Scholarship Scheme and I am today a doctor at the Federal Medical Centre Abuja or I am teaching in Zimbabwe, I feel contented.â€
The Chairman of the Victor Ndoma Egba Scholarship Board, Dr Margaret Ndoma Egba said that at the inception of the scheme in 2003, people were sceptical about the success of the scheme and concluded that the amount being given out was the N500 collected from the applicants as cost of the forms, “which is not true because the sum given to each beneficiary for one session is about the sum we collect for the hundred forms we prints.â€
According to her, the scholarship scheme has significantly increased the number of graduates in the Central Senatorial District of the state.
Mr. Ekpo Okon, the PDP Chairman in the state said Senator Ndoma-Egba is one product the party has sent to Abuja which the state is proud of and the scholarship scheme through which the Senator is providing education to his people is laudable because according to him, “giving someone education is empowerment in perpetuityâ€.
—Emma Una/ Calabar
