The Abia Media Forum (AMF) has called on Nigerians of good conscience to advise the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to stop its injustice and insult to the people of the South-East excluded from the lucrative PTDF scholarships and come to the region to do its interviews as it did for other regions.
In a statement by the Chairman, Abia Media Forum, Ben Okezie, and the Secretary, Kelechi Ogbamgba, disclosed that the PTDF shocked rational and fair-minded Nigerians recently with its claim that it could not hold interviews for its scholarships in the South-East but did so successfully in the North-East and North-West.
PTDF instead offers persons from the South-East the opportunity to attend those interviews outside their geopolitical zone.
The AMF is convinced that the PTDF can and should rise to the constitutional and professional obligation to treat all sections of the country fairly and equitably.
The ABF invites PTDF management to apply Section 2 of the Nigerian Constitution which directs all agencies of government to enforce the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.
In this case, PTDF must ensure via sub-section 10 that “There should not be any discrimination on the grounds of place of origin, gender, religion, status, ethnic or linguistic ties.”
PTDF is duty-bound to conduct the Overseas Scholarship Scheme interviews in a location in the South-East as it has done for other regions.
PTDF said it received 26,000 applications and shortlisted over 8000. The PTDF OSS is an annual programme that awards scholarships to Nigerians for MSc and PhD studies in partner universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, and Malaysia.
According to the Manager of the OSS, Mr Bello Mustapha, PTDF hold interviews for its Overseas Scholarship Scheme in Abuja (North Central), Port Harcourt (South-South), Ibadan (South-West), Kaduna (North-West) and Bauchi (North-East).
The AMF considers the PTDF claim that the North-West and the North-East are more secure than the South-East both tendentious and ridiculous as it flies in the face of Nigeria’s current history. Pray, was it not in Kaduna that terrorists bombed a train and took over several communities? Is Kaduna not the location that citizens can hardly reach again through the connecting road to other towns such as Abuja? PTDF should go to the South-East.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/amf-calls-on-ptdf-to-reverse-its-unjustifiable-exclusion-of-south-east-from-scholarships/
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