15 secondary school pupils and 15 students of various polytechnics and universities, who are Ibadan indigenes, benefited from the 2015 edition of the Ibadan Foundation Scholarship and Bursary Award, the president of the foundation, Chief Bayo Alugbin, has stated.
As stated by Alugbin, the winners were chosen based on academic excellence.
At the event, which was held at the Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre, Ibadan on Sunday, over N6m was distributed to the winners of the scholarship and bursary.
“A lot of applications were received out of which these winners were chosen based on academic excellence. To be a winner, you must be the best in your class,” Alugbin stated.
The patron of the foundation and Chairman of KICC, Dr. Lekan Are, said, “I call on the recipients to study hard for a better future. If you don’t make sacrifice today, you will suffer tomorrow. This is the only thing that will gladden the hearts of your parents. I also call on the parents to play their roles in the education of their children. Their children must be computer literate because that is the only standard through which today’s world is measured. Whatever you plan to do, you must be able to operate a computer.
“It is also important to protect our indigenous language and culture. You must understand your own language to be excellent in the mastery of a foreign language. We must protect our culture for our future to be secured. I raised one of my children in the United States but I spoke Yoruba to him despite the fact that we lived in an English speaking society,” Are added.
Are also urged the students to shun cultism.
The Chairman of the foundation’s scholarship board, Chief Lere Adigun, said the foundation had spent millions of naira on the project which is in its 17th edition.
“In this era of rapid socio-economic and political development worldwide, education remains the cardinal bedrock of empowerment, and its pragmatic recognition inspired the basic idea of sponsoring the educational advancement of indigenes of Ibadan. It is our hope that this huge investment will yield the desired dividends through utilisation of the scholarship for the intended purpose,” Adigun stated.