What I Ordered vs What I Got

Nigeria is cancelling its major international scholarship

May 01, 2025

Good morning, Big Brains. Happy New Month and Happy Workers’ Day!. You deserve to stay in your pyjamas all day, binge-reading all the editions of The Big Daily you’ve missed.

- Margaret

Word count: ~ 1,000
Reading time ~ 5 mins

Let’s get into today’s edition:

Nigeria is cancelling its major international scholarship
The government wants doctors to stay in Nigeria

The Big Deal

Nigeria is cancelling its major international scholarship

We are not typically in the habit of giving away freebies, but we owe you one doughnut if you’ve heard about Nigeria’s international scholarship before now.

The Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship program allows Nigerian students to study in countries like China, Russia, Algeria, Serbia, Hungary, Egypt, and Morocco. It’s not just any kind of scholarship, too; it’s the fancy type that covers tuition fees and living expenses. As sweet as this scholarship sounds, the federal government is choosing to scrap it because it is “wasting public funds” and offering courses already taught in Nigerian universities.

To be fair, this scholarship has been having issues for a long time. Back in March 2024, the Nigerian government was dragged online for messing with the stipends of BEA scholars. We can’t say the draggings were misplaced because these students were promised a world-class education, but ended up stranded and broke.

The Union of Nigerian Bilateral Education Agreement Scholars (UNBEAS) said they hadn’t been paid properly since August 2023. And even that last payment didn’t cover the full amount because of the drama in the exchange rate. For a whole year after that, nothing came in. Then in September 2024, they finally got something, but it was a classic case of “What I ordered vs what I got”. The stipend had been slashed from $500 to $220.

Students started getting kicked out of their apartments, skipping meals, and falling sick with no money for healthcare. They asked the government to pay them what they were owed, return the full $500, and stop playing with their future but the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said these students were trying to “blackmail” the government on social media over the alleged unfair treatment. He also added that he was asked to approve ₦650 million for just 60 students heading to Morocco, but didn’t think it made sense to invest so much money in a small group while millions of other Nigerian students were struggling.

Now, Nigeria is going to pour the BEA funds into local scholarships because, according to the authorities, the quality of education obtainable here is in the same category as that in countries like China.

Why is this a big deal?

Dr Alausa talks a good talk on paper, but even children have learnt to take the words of a Nigerian official with a pinch of salt. He claims that all current BEA scholars will be allowed to finish their education before completely withdrawing the funds, but these are the same students who are reportedly struggling to get an allowance from the government.

These students were sold world-class dreams and left high and dry. What’s stopping the government from doing it again, and shutting them up with the “blackmail” card?

It is also quite comical that the minister suggests that Nigeria offers the same quality of education as countries like China, Russia, and Hungary. China is tagged as one of the best countries to study in the world, while Nigeria isn’t even considered to be among the top 100 in the world. If Dr Alausa truly believed in the quality of Nigerian education, he would never have attended the Medical College of Wisconsin after getting a degree at the University of Lagos, as he boldly displays on his LinkedIn. There’s nothing world-class about schooling in Nigeria, and depriving future scholars from average Nigerian families of the opportunity to experience quality education isn’t the gag he thinks it is.

Now that the minister has chosen to redirect these funds to local universities, we have solid reasons to believe that it’s pure clout. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been begging for the barest minimum since forever, and the government has still not met their needs. Are we expected to believe all of a sudden that the government will be able to deliver on this new dream it is selling to Nigerian students? Even if they eventually redirect the scholarship fund, it still won’t change the fact that Nigeria’s education system is a hot mess, and the 7% budget allocation for 2025 isn’t going to help anybody.

The only thing that would save Nigeria’s education system is a complete revamp, and if the government is not ready to do that, is there really any point in scrapping this scholarship?

The government wants doctors to stay in Nigeria

William Shakespeare once said, “Don’t throw yourself a party and act surprised” (try not to ask us when he said this). But sadly, his iconic last words have fallen on deaf ears in Aso Rock. After years of underpaying and overworking doctors, Nigeria has now found itself in a messy situation where one doctor is expected to treat 10,000 people.

The damage has already been done, but the government is now doing whatever it can to stop new doctors from seeking greener pastures abroad.

FG has recently launched a ₦110 billion intervention fund to upgrade medical schools across the country. According to the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, ₦70 billion will go into making the country’s medical schools look more “international,” ₦15 billion will be put towards building hostels, and providing 76 schools with fancy simulation centres for training.

The president has also told universities to admit more medical students so Nigeria can train more doctors. Basically, they’re hoping to reduce brain drain by creating better schools and producing enough doctors for both home and export.

The plan is supposed to run for five years, and if all goes well, we’ll finally stop asking one doctor to do the work of ten thousand. We want to say this is medicine after death, but we’ll be optimistic instead and keep our fingers crossed.

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This Week’s Big Question

” What low-quality Nigerian problem would you fix if you could?”

Adura’s response - “I don’t know a better way to describe the actual problem, but I wish I could get rid of how mediocre Nigeria is in many areas.”

You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting as Adura’s, we’ll feature it in the next edition.