The executive secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Dr Oluwole Oluleye has described the ‘Exceptional Service Award’ given to him by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) as a morale booster, as well as an attestation of the impact of the PTDF in the last 13 years.
“We are grateful that we are being recognized for the activities we have been undertaking and certainly we feel we have made a great impact in the number of students that we have trained to take over the oil and gas industry.
“Mr. President is also very much interested. As part of the Transformation Agenda those who distinguished themselves in academics with first class degrees are automatically sent abroad for Masters and Doctorate degree programs,’’ he said.
He explained that the 2013 scholarship was combined with that of 2014 because of the situation on ground. “What I met on ground was not so palatable; a lot of students were owed, we couldn’t pay, we had no funds to pay and I felt at that point there was absolutely no need to take additional students, although I was under pressure to do so. I want to make sure that those on our scholarship abroad and in Nigerian universities are paid as at when due,” he said
The PTDF boss commended the new initiative of NANS towards entrepreneurship, a decision he said will ensure that Nigerian youths are empowered to take their rightful position in the economy.
In their response, the national leadership of the students’ group assured the PTDF boss of their resolve to sort out all their differences, and become united and credible enough to partner with responsible institutions such as PTDF in the pursuit of the development of education in Nigeria.
The national vice president of the association, Comrade Ahmad Jibril, said that Nigerian students are now united in their struggle to see that their future is protected. “The days of factions and splinters in NANS are gone. The days of a NANS body that goes from office to office in search of money is gone. It is now a constructive student force that believes in doing what is right to set the nation aright.”
