Yemi Obafemi
Atiku Abubakar has raised alarm over the effective discontinuation of the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship programme, which has left about 1,600 Nigerian students stranded abroad.
He said the programme, described as a “bridge between Nigeria and the world,” was quietly abandoned under the Tinubu administration without notifying students or their parents.
Atiku explained that the BEA, established in 1993 and revitalised in 1999, allows Nigerian students to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate studies in countries such as China, Russia, Morocco, and Hungary through bilateral agreements.
He added that what was initially framed as a temporary five-year suspension soon evolved into a complete halt, leaving students with “empty pockets and fading hope.”
“Their pleas are simple and desperate: pay the stipends owed, now more than $6,000 per student. Yet from the corridors of power came a cold, technocratic explanation: scarce public funds must be managed “responsibly,” and money meant to keep these students alive abroad should instead be redirected home. In that reasoning, the humans behind the figures dissolved into abstractions, and duty was sacrificed on the altar of convenience.
“The cruelty of the moment was sharpened by timing and tone. After months of cries from students and parents over unpaid allowances, the authorities announced the suspension with a levity that stunned those already on the brink. Between September and December 2023, the students were not paid, and in 2024, stipends were slashed by 56 per cent, from $500 to $220 a month, before stopping altogether. There was no payment throughout the whole of 2025,” he said.
According to Atiku, students went without allowances between September and December 2023. In 2024, stipends were slashed by 56 per cent, from $500 to $220 per month, before being stopped entirely in 2025. The financial strain has reportedly left students facing hunger, unpaid rent, and public embarrassment. In Morocco, one student reportedly died last November amid the crisis.
Protests have erupted in Abuja, with parents and students demonstrating outside the Ministries of Education and Finance. Authorities reportedly suggested that any student “fed up” with the programme could return home at government expense, a move critics say undermines years of academic effort and achievement.
Atiku stressed that the BEA was never charity, but a diplomatic initiative designed to develop Nigeria’s future workforce.
“Then came the final wound: defiance dressed as policy. In a press statement, the minister declared that any student ‘fed up’ could be financed to return home, as though abandoning years of study and shattered dreams were a minor administrative detail.
“To anxious parents, it sounded like expulsion by neglect, Nigeria casting off its brightest children and leaving them to become objects of pity among peers from African countries that honour their obligations.
“The BEA scheme was never a charity; it was a diplomatic agreement rooted in shared progress, revitalised in 1999 to build Nigeria’s future workforce through partnerships with nations such as China, Russia, Morocco, and Hungary.
“Today, that pact lies broken, and across distant campuses, Nigerian scholars wait, not just for stipends, but for a sign that their country still remembers them,” the statement added.
