PTDF you are duty bound to conduct scholarship interviews in South East-Group
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
A group, the Abia Media Forum, says the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) was duty bound to conduct its Overseas Scholarship Scheme (OSS) interviews in a location in the South East, not outside the geo-political zone.
The group’s statement is coming against the backdrop of the claim by PTDF that it could not conduct the OSS interview in the South East due insecurity in the region.
Instead PTDF has offered persons from the South-East the opportunity to attend those interviews outside their geopolitical zone.
The PTDF OSS is an annual programme that awards scholarships to Nigerians for M.Sc and Ph.D studies in partner universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, and Malaysia. PTDF said it received 26, 000 applications and shortlisted over 8000.
In a statement endorsed by the Chairman of Abia Media Forum, Ben Okezie; and Secretary, Kelechi Ogbamgba, which was made available to The Oracle Today, the group described the claim by the PTDF for excluding the South East from its scholarship interviews as “shocking, tendentious and ridiculous.”
The statement quoted the Manager of OSS, Mr Bello Mustapha, as saying that PTDF would hold interviews for its Overseas Scholarship Scheme (OSS) in Abuja (North Central), Port Harcourt (South-South), Ibadan (South-West), Kaduna (North-West) and Bauchi (North-East).
The Abia group said that the claim by PTDF last week it could not hold interviews for its scholarships in the South-East due to insecurity in the region but did so successfully in the North-East and North-West would remain a shocker for rational and fair-minded Nigerians.
“The Abia Media Forum considers the PTDF claim that the North-West and the North-East are more secure than the South-East both tendentious and ridiculous as it flies in the face of Nigeria’s current history.
“Pray, was it not in Kaduna that terrorists bombed a train and took over several communities? Is Kaduna not the location that citizens can hardly reach again through the connecting road to other towns such as Abuja?” the group queried.
“The Abia Media Forum calls on Nigerians of good conscience to join us in our request that the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) stop its injustice and insult to the people of the South-East excluded from the lucrative PTDF scholarships and come to the region to do its interviews as it did for other regions.
“PTDF is duty-bound to conduct the Overseas Scholarship Scheme interviews in a location in the South-East as it has done for other regions,” the group demanded.
It advised the federal government agency to apply the country’s constitution in the discharge of its mandate.
“The Abia Media Forum is convinced that the PTDF can and should rise to the constitutional and professional obligation to treat all sections of the country fairly and equitably.
“The Abia Media Forum invites PTDF management to apply Section 2 of the Nigerian Constitution which directs all agencies of government to enforce the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.
“In this case, PTDF must ensure via sub-section 10 that ‘There should not be any discrimination on the grounds of place of origin, sex (gender), religion, status, ethnic or linguistic ties,’” the statement read in part.
