Ekweremadu disburses N23.5m scholarship grants to students

Ekweremadu

The Ikeoha Foundation, founded by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has given out N23.5m in bursary and scholarship grants to indigent students in Enugu State.

The students were drawn from the five local councils of Enugu-West Senatorial District, as well as Enugu- North and Igboeze-North local government areas.

Ekweremadu, who represents Enugu-West in the Senate, made the gesture at the 2015 edition of the Ikeoha Foundation Adult Literacy Day and 2014/2015 Scholarship and Bursary Award Ceremony, which held at the Government Field in Awgu on Saturday.

The event also marked the graduation of a total of 198 students from the Foundation’s adult learning programme.

Fifty students from Awgu, Aninri, Ezeagu, Udi and Oji River local governments areas as well as 25 from Igboeze-North and Enugu- North local councils, received N40,000 each as bursary awards while 19 students were given the sum of N400,000 individually as scholarship grants for a four-year university education programme.

Speaking at the event, Ekweremadu noted that the fate of the Foundation would have been uncertain if he had not been re-elected into the Senate.



“I am happy because about a year or two ago, nobody was certain that Ikeoha Foundation and its programmes would continue, because there was fear that Senator Ike Ekweremadu would not go back to the Senate and this programme could die.

“It is by the grace of God and prayers of the beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries that we were able to go back to the National Assembly,” he said.

The deputy senate president urged graduates of the adult literacy programme to make the most of the education they received, even though it came relatively late in life.

He pointed out that several successful Nigerians did not get the opportunity to receive education early in life.

Ekweremadu said, “We had a Senator in the Seventh Senate. he used to follow trailers to Enugu to off-load tomatoes.

“But one day, he embraced education by teaching himself how to read and write.

“He eventually found himself in a Teachers’ Training College, and finally, he found himself in the Senate.”