A group of professionals, businessmen and politicians who came under an umbrella known as the Orba New Breed Association, on Saturday, awarded a total sum of N3 million to 30 indigent students from Orba in Udenu local government area in honour of the celebration of Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on the occasion of his 57th birthday.
Each of the students, whom are undergraduates of tertiary institutions in the state and beyond, were presented a cheque of N100,000 during the event which took place at Command Secondary School, Orba, after emerging successful in an examination conducted by the state scholarship board.
Speaking at the event, Chairman of the association and General Manager Rural Electrification Board, Engr. Onyema Odoh, noted that members of the Orba New Breed Association came together to proffer solutions to many issues regarding the community and move the community to the next level.
He added, “We’re very happy today(Saturday) that we came up to put smiles on the faces of young undergraduates and this is in honour of His Excellency, the Governor of Enugu State who is our father, our mentor, our brother and an indigene who is celebrating his birthday today.
“We’re very happy to be part of this epoch making event to be able to put smiles on the faces of these young, brilliant Orba students. ”
In his contribution, the Executive Secretary of the Enugu State Scholarship Board, Barrister Levi Abonyi who also doubled as the association’s chairman scholarship committee, appreciated the good performance of the students who participated in the exercise.
He pointed out that the scholarship was meant to encourage and support brilliant undergraduate students in the various communities in Orba.
According to him, “Reading through the most of the essays and some other parts of the questions we asked, I was actually fascinated by the fact that our people are seriously committed to their studies.”
He noted that two questions were posed to the students during the examination, one of which was to test their writing skills, saying, “granted that some of you may not be in areas where you do writing often but most of you who made it are in the sciences who are not actually given to writing. That was something that intrigued me and members of the committee. ”
He admitted that there are other students who could have benefitted from the gesture but owing to the fact that they want to ensure that the winners spread from one village to another, “that was why some of you who would have been here is not able to be here because we tried to make sure it spread to different communities in Orba,” he added.
He, however, assured that the programme will be sustained every year that the governor celebrates his birthday.
On his part, the Deputy Mayor Udenu LGA, Hon. Gideon Tochukwu Eze, thanked the chairman and members of the committee for coming up with such initiative, as he assured that the scholarship will reach to more than 30 students in Orba if repeated.
He said:“Today is a great day as we mark Governor Ugwuanyi’s 57th birthday and were giving out N100, 000 each to 30 persons today. The money is not about giving it to the people, it’s about making sure that there’s merit and that everyone of them is an indigene of Orba. We pray and hope that next time, it will be more than 30 students.”
The beneficiaries were advised to make good use of the money to improve on their studies.
One of the beneficiaries and 200 level student of Public Administration and Local Government at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Ezeh Emmanuella expressed happiness and satisfaction to the association for remembering the students in Orba.
“With heart full of joy and gratitude, I appreciate all of you, the Governor and the Orba New Breed for initiated this program. We are very grateful.
“I promise that this money will be utilised efficiently and effectively. And if tomorrow, I find myself in the position that you people are, I will do more because there are many poor but intelligent people that couldn’t continue with their education because there was no fund to support them,” Emmanuella said.
Another 200 level student of ESUT College of Medicine who benefitted from the scholarship, expressed gratitude to the organizers for according him the privilege.
He said, “I’m humbled to be granted this opportunity. I consider myself and the rest of my colleagues privileged to be recognized and honoured in this manner.
“I believe it poses a demand on us to succeed with this investment that has been made into our lives. We have no other option than to return it with good results and we promise to do that with the best of our abilities. I appreciate you all and we can’t thank you enough. I appreciate the governor and wish him a blissful birthday celebration today.”
