Atiku Says Tinubu Administration Has Deserted 1600 Nigerian Students Abroad

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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the Federal Government of abandoning Nigerian students studying in foreign countries under the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship programme.

In a statement released on Sunday, Atiku alleged that the BEA scheme was quietly discontinued under President Bola Tinubu’s administration without any formal communication to the affected students or their families, leaving many stranded midway through their academic programmes.

He expressed concern that the government’s failure to honour its obligations has left approximately 1,600 Nigerian students abroad without necessary financial support.

Calling the BEA “a diplomatic bridge that has now collapsed,” Atiku noted that the programme, first introduced in 1993 and strengthened in 1999, was created to help Nigerian students access undergraduate and postgraduate opportunities through formal educational partnerships with other nations.

“What was initially presented as a temporary five-year suspension eventually became total abandonment,” Atiku stated.

He said the decision has led to students being stranded without stipends, with each student now owed several thousands of dollars in unpaid allowances.

“Their request is simple and urgent: settle the outstanding stipends, which now exceed $6,000 per student. Yet, the government responded with a detached bureaucratic justification—that limited public funds must be ‘managed responsibly,’ and the money sustaining these students should instead be diverted to domestic priorities,” Atiku said.

According to him, the situation worsened from September to December 2023 when no stipends were paid at all, and conditions deteriorated further in 2024 when monthly allowances were reduced by 56 per cent—from $500 to $220—before being completely cut off.

He added that the timing of the policy’s collapse compounded the suffering.

“Hunger, unpaid rent, and humiliation have become constant realities for these scholarship students. In Morocco, one beneficiary tragically died in November last year, turning private agony into public mourning,” Atiku said.