.NAOSS OAU chapter President denies half of students have received the N50,000 cash
Some students of Ogun State origin in tertiary institutions have complained about non-receipt of the Educash award promised by the state government to cushion the current economic crisis.
The award, tagged: “Educational Cash Award for Student Help,” is an intervention programme for students in all public primary and secondary schools, as well as public and private tertiary institutions across Nigeria to cushion the effects of the current economic challenges on their studies and their parents.
This gesture was announced by Governor Dapo Abiodun as part of the state’s palliative measures.
According to him, each student of Ogun State origin is entitled to N50,000 cash from the state government.
But some students of the state origin, especially in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, who spoke with The Guardian, said they had not received the money.
According to them, only a few students claimed to have received the N50,000 cash award.
Similarly, some students of the University of Ibadan (UI) and Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, said they had not received the money. They also claimed that few of them had received the money.
However, in a telephone chat with The Guardian, the state’s Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, said that no fewer than half of the indigent students in every institution had received the cash award.
He said that the disbursement of the educash payment was being done in batches.
Meanwhile, the President of the National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS), OAU chapter, Mariam Adeleye, yesterday, said that only a few students of Ogun State origin in the institution had received the money.
Adeleye, who said she could not say that it is a propaganda or scam, however, refuted the claim by the state’s Commissioner for Education that half of the students of the state origin in OAU had received the cash award.
The NAOSS OAU chapter President said that out of the 3,000 names compiled and sent to the state government, only 200 students had been paid.
She also said that none of the executive members of NAOSS in OAU had received the cash award.
It would be recalled that the Ogun State government had said that an estimated 60,000 students from the state in all tertiary institutions across the country would benefit from the N50,000 palliative of the state government.
Arigbabu, who corroborated the governor’s educash award stance in March when he assured that students in public and private tertiary institutions would benefit from the cash award, said: “The state government is targeting 10,000 indigent students in public primary and secondary schools in the three senatorial districts to also get N10,000 each too.
“Some students have confirmed receiving the N50,000, even as they showered encomium on the governor for the gesture.
“No fewer than 30,000 students in tertiary institutions across the country had so far benefited from the Educash transfer of N50,000 to cushion the current economic crisis.
“I can tell you that for one of the tertiary institutions, we have done 20,000 as of today, and the total for the tertiary institution beneficiaries is a little bit less than 50,000. Hopefully, by the end of next week, we will have reached half of that, which is about 25,000 beneficiaries.
“I want to assure those who have not received theirs, for instance, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), as a list of a little bit over 12,000 was sent to us. As of now, we have paid just a little less than 6,000.
“The same thing at Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), where we have a little bit less than 8,000. We have tried to make sure we are targeting between 45 per cent to 50 per cent in all the schools.”
