Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the Bola Tinubu administration for quietly discontinuing the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship program, leaving approximately 1,600 Nigerian students stranded abroad without financial support and facing dire hardships.
In a strongly worded statement released on Sunday, Atiku revealed that he had been briefed on the plight of the students, who are pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in countries such as China, Russia, Morocco, and Hungary under the long-standing scholarship scheme.
The BEA, established in 1993 and revitalized in 1999, facilitates educational exchanges through diplomatic agreements between Nigeria and partner nations, aiming to build the country’s future workforce.
However, Atiku alleged that under the current administration, the program has been “quietly discontinued without notice to the parents/wards of the students and without any consideration for their education.” What began as a purported temporary five-year suspension, he said, has evolved into outright abandonment, stranding students with mounting debts and diminishing prospects.
“Their pleas are simple and desperate: pay the stipends owed, now more than $6,000 per student,” Abubakar stated. He criticized the government’s response as a “cold, technocratic explanation” that prioritizes redirecting scarce public funds domestically, effectively treating the students as “abstractions” rather than individuals in need.
The timeline of the crisis, as outlined by Atiku, highlights a pattern of neglect.
According to him, students received no payments between September and December 2023. In 2024, monthly stipends were slashed by 56 percent, from $500 to $220, before ceasing entirely. Throughout 2025, there were no disbursements at all, exacerbating the students’ struggles.
Abubakar painted a grim picture of the consequences: “Hunger, rent arrears, and shame have become the daily companions of the beneficiary students.” He noted a tragic incident in Morocco, where one student succumbed to the ordeal and died in November 2025, transforming “quiet suffering into public grief.”
The former vice president’s statement also referenced public outcry, including protests by parents and scholars in Abuja outside the Ministries of Education and Finance.
Demonstrators carried placards expressing sorrow and rage, but their demands went unanswered.
In what Abubakar described as the “final wound,” a press statement from the minister suggested that any student “fed up” with the situation could be financed to return home. He condemned this as “defiance dressed as policy,” likening it to “expulsion by neglect” and arguing that it dismisses years of academic investment and shattered dreams. He contrasted Nigeria’s approach with that of other African countries, which he said continue to honor similar obligations, leaving Nigerian students as “objects of pity” among their peers.
Atiku emphasized that the BEA is not mere charity but a “diplomatic agreement rooted in shared progress.” He warned that its breakdown erodes international partnerships and signals neglect of Nigeria’s youth.
“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,” he concluded.
The statement comes amid ongoing economic challenges in Nigeria, including debates over fiscal responsibility and resource allocation. Neither the Ministry of Education nor the Presidency has immediately responded to Atiku’s allegations. As of now, the fate of the stranded students remains uncertain, with calls mounting for urgent intervention to restore the program and settle outstanding stipends.
