Chevening Scholarship: UK Govt’s Succour To Nigerian Students
BUKOLA OGUNSINA writes that no other country has the number of applicants for the prestigious Chevening Scholarships as Nigeria. Based on merit, the fully-funded scholarship, annually given by the British government has lifted a good number of Nigerians. Recently, Paul Arkwright the British High Commissioner celebrated successful Nigerians who won the 2016/2017 Scholarship programme.
The night was young, the invitees filled
with a sense of achievement; of hopes
realised; of dream come true. It was at
the residence of the British High
Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency
Paul Arkwright. People who had made it to
become Chevening Scholars were being
ushered in, some with their guests, others
with their thoughts of what lay ahead.
The evening was not without jokes and
pleasantries too. “Is her name on the
list,?” the security enquired of a guest
who had come accompanied by a scholar,
“no, she is my guest,” the scholar said.
“Her name is not on the list, sorry she
can’t come in,” he responded sharply,
giving her a deadpan expression. And just
as the scholar stared confused, lost for
words, he broke into a huge grin to
declare, “Just joking!” and politely
ushered them in
People mingled, talking excitedly about
things they discovered they had in common,
same universities they were admitted too,
courses, lifestyles, and of course the
occasional hugs upon sighting an old
friend who had made it too.
Omoboyowa Roberts who is one of the
beneficiaries of the Chevening
Scholarship, 2016/2017 told LEADERSHIP
Sunday that, “this for me is a dream come
true, something I had always looked
forward to even from my university days.
I am going to be studying, Masters in
Peace and Development at Leeds Beckett
University.
“I think it’s a global opportunity to meet
with other scholars and to be a part of the
alumni, and above all to be able to get the
investment where you can come back and
develop Nigeria as a whole, so, it’s been a
fantastic opportunity, and I am happy to
be privileged to be a part of the global
network,” she said excitedly.
The Chevening Scholarships are the UK
Government’s overseas scholarships,
awarded to individuals with demonstrable
leadership potential who also have good
academic backgrounds. The scholarship not
only offers financial support for people
studying for a master’s degree at any UK
university, it also allows beneficiaries
become part of an influential global
network of 46,000 alumni. In 2015, 45
Nigerian benefited from the fully funded
scholarship.
Arkwright, the British High Commissioner to
Nigeria, began the evening with a welcome
address and some advice to beneficiaries
at the reception.
“This is the second time I have had a
Chevening reception. Last year, we
welcomed the scholars back to Nigeria
after they had finished their one year in
the UK. I am very pleased to see a few of
those people who were here last year,
come back to wish good luck to all our new
scholars.
“So, a very warm welcome to all, who have
won Chevening scholarships this year. To
wish you the best of luck, to think about
how you can contribute to Nigeria when
you come back. I think that is a very
important part of the Chevening philosophy
if you like. It is about you, going out to
the UK, benefitting from the best
education in the world. I can say that
because, I am a product of it. And most
important of all, in my view is how you use
that expertise, how you use your
networks, your new friends to benefit this
great country of Nigeria.
“Those of you who are part of the alumni
network are part of a huge network, what
we are trying to do is build up the
network in Nigeria. We have over 1000
Nigerians who have been through the
Chevening programme, but we only have
about 150 people on our database.
So one of the things I am going to ask
you guys to do, both the current alumni
and those who are going out there in the
next few weeks is to reach out to some of
your friends, find out who’s got Chevening
scholarships and let others know, so that
we can increase that database, we can
help you with your own networks as well
as have a better sense of who it is who
are particularly good friends of the UK
because they have been to British
universities and benefitted from a British
education.”
This year, Nigeria had the most
applications for Chevening scholarship
which was about 4000. The High
Commissioner also stressed on the
importance of funding the programme so
that more Nigerians could be beneficiaries
as he called on the Nigerian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to encourage their best to
apply for a Chevening scholarship, as the
scholarship needs more people in the civil
service and government sectors.
Big names such as Channels television’s
John Momoh, Nigeria’s Comptroller general
of Immigration and many more have
benefitted from the awards, including the
Ministry of Foreign affairs Permanent
Secretary, Audu-Rafiu Olusola
Enikanolaiye. Supporting the network
would in turn not just aid social
networking, but provide opportunities for
future generations of Nigerians.
“One of the things that I am determined to
do is to encourage people who have
benefitted from the Chevening scholarship
to give back to the Chevening scholarship
by helping to provide finance for
scholarships. And again we are looking for
partnerships, and you can help with that,
you can help with even giving some
guidance to the kind of study that you
would think will be beneficial to your
company, your institution, “Arkwright said.
He commended Laddoll Logistics who
provided funding for the Chevening
scholarships awardees. “We want to see a
lot more companies partnering with us in
helping Nigerians do this in the future,” he
said.
The president of the Chevening Alumni
Association in Nigeria, Mr Tom Odemwingie
said, “I won this scholarship many years
ago. I did my programme in 1990/1991.
When I was about to leave the UK, one of
my friends said to me, why are you going
back to Nigeria, I can arrange for you to
stay behind if you want? The whole idea of
me accepting this scholarship was for me
to do a programme here, go back home and
help our people, that’s the kind of
challenge you are going to face. Someone
is going to tell you, why do you want to
go back?
“But the reason you should go back is to
go and solve a problem. There’s the other
issue of when you come back, what do you
do? I became the president of the alumni
association in 2011. We got the Corporate
Commission to register the association, as
Chevening Alumni Association. Since that
time it has been very frustrating to get
people to participate in the activities of
the association. But I like to report that
very recently we had a number of very
enthusiastic alumni who are saying we
must do something. We want to be able to
inspire activities around Nigeria. He
commended the High Commissioner for his
commitment to the alumni.
A Chevening Scholar, with an offer at
London School of Hygiene and Tropical
medicine to study Health Policy Planning
and Financing, Chinwe Chikwendu, said
“Perhaps why I am actually most excited is
because it’s not just me, from my family
here tonight, my younger brother happens
to also be a beneficiary. We are going to
the same university; we are going to do
the same course, so I bet you this goes to
show the level of transparency that is
actually applied in the Chevening
scholarship selection, because if there was
any other thing that is considered then
both of us would not be here tonight. I
want to say, a big thank you to UK
government first of all for the Chevening
scholarship scheme, because this is just
something very wonderful that has really
helped so many people achieve their
dreams, it is also something that has given
many people the opportunity they had
never really imagined they would get. So
it’s something really wonderful, and I
think the best way to reward the British
government and Chevening, is for us to go
out there to the UK and make the most of
the opportunity.
“Imbibe the knowledge, to interact, to
network and to improve ourselves and add
more value to ourselves, so when we come
back to Nigeria we will definitely add more
to the human capital that is available for
the growth and development of Nigeria,”
he said.
