The Arewa Defence League (ADL), a northern forum, has criticised the federal government for abandoning the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA), accusing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of politicising the issue.

In a statement released by President Murtala Abubakar in Abuja, the ADL condemned the President’s silence amid protests over the program’s collapse, describing it as a significant indictment.

Abubakar affirmed that the BEA Scholarship Programme is valuable, stating, “Education is not wasteful. Knowledge is not extravagant,” and emphasised that the BEA was a diplomatic investment in Nigeria’s future.

“Yes, the programme has always struggled with delays and bureaucratic cruelty. But never before has a Nigerian government so casually turned its back on students already in the field, already committed, already vulnerable. A nation may abandon roads and refineries, but when it abandons its children, especially in foreign lands, it abandons its soul.”

The statement added that the justification for abandoning the policy was thrift, but the reality many now fear is far more cruel.
“It began when the Bola Tinubu administration abruptly scrapped the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) Scholarship Programme, a lifeline that had enabled thousands of brilliant but underprivileged Nigerians to enter classrooms across China, Russia, Morocco, Hungary, and beyond.

“In May 2025, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced that the government would no longer fund foreign scholarships, insisting that every course Nigerians studied abroad was now available, “and often of higher quality, within local institutions.” Public money, he argued, should no longer be spent on overseas education when domestic alternatives existed. The decision, he said, followed a “thorough policy review.

” Yet for students already scattered across continents, this review translated into abandonment. “Only days earlier, the ministry had spoken of a five-year suspension. Then came assurances, soft words meant to calm parents and scholars alike, that existing beneficiaries would be fully supported until the end of their studies. Those assurances have since dissolved into silence.” The statement reads

The League further condemned reports that the government, which claimed it could no longer fund the BEA, has allocated N1.764 billion in the 2026 Appropriation Bill for 300 new BEA scholarships. These funds are essential expenses and highlight the unfairness faced by abandoned students, who see it as salt in an open wound.