Two visually impaired indigent students of University of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka, Nofisat Ogundare and Balkis Agbede, and 10 others have expressed great relief that they can now walk into banks to pay for their hostel accommodations and also balance up their obligatory fees to the university.
Before now, they were disturbed because they didn’t know how and where the money to meet those needs would come from.
The 12 students are those who won this year’s edition of the annual scholarship awards by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for indigent but brilliant students of the university to support their studies.
They expressed their happiness on Thursday at an event where they all received their award cheque at UNILAG, emphasizing that the money would go a long way to meet their pressing needs on campus.
While both Nofisat, who is in 400-Level and Balkis ( 200-Level) received N200,000 each, 10 others, who are in different departments and levels including Zainab Ojo, who is in 300 Level, were given N100,000 each, all totaling N1.4 million.
Bilkis said she was not born blind but lost her eyesight completely just two years ago after battling glaucoma for nine years while Nofisat lost hers when she was already 20 years old.
They both told Saturday Tribune in an interview that the scholarship money came at the right time as they almost lost hope of where to get money to meet their pressing needs including feeding on campus.
According to Bilkis, she is yet to balance up her hostel accommodation and obligatory fees in the university and would therefore use part of the money to settle those bills and the remaining balance to spend on other needs.
She said it was not easy to cope on campus as a visually impaired person and now to come from indigent homes where getting money is very difficult has compounded her challenge as a student.
“That is why for me, this scholarship money is just like a miracle and indeed, it is,” Bilkis, who already has National Diploma in Business Administration from Kwara State Polytechnic, stressed.
She and her colleagues thanked ASUU and all members of the union for the scholarship, saying they are externally grateful to them.
In their separate remarks at the event, the chairman of ASUU of the branch, Prof Kayode Adebayo and his immediate predecessor, Dr Dele Ashiru, said the scholarship award is a directive from the national body of ASUU as a way of lessening the financial burden of some indigent but brilliant students across the nation’s public universities.
Adebayo explained further that every November 12 had been set aside by ASUU national to recognise and celebrate ASUU members, who have either made sterling contributions or have paid the supreme price in the service of the union and that the union always uses the occasion to give out scholarship award to two indigent students in each of the public universities on annual basis.
He said; “So, we ASUU-UNILAG is giving out N200,000 each to two indigent students on behalf of our national secretariat and on our own and in line with our congress resolution on October 13th, 2023 giving additional 10 students N100,000 each, bringing the total prize money to N1.4 million.
He said the union selected the beneficiaries based on their applications and interviews conducted for them to know they truly deserved the award.
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