Amnesty Office sendsout 89 youths for UK,Cyprus varsityeducation

89 Niger Delta youths
will this week , leave
for the United Kingdom
and Cyprus to pursue
various degree
programmes under the
Presidential Amnesty
Office scholarship
scheme, even as former
deputy speaker of the
House of
Representatives, Hon.
Chibudom Nwuche,
advocated a
programme through
which a quota of oil
company employment
opportunities could be
reserved for candidates
from the Niger Delta.
The Special Assistant to
the President on Niger
Delta Affairs, Hon.
Kingsley Kuku, who
addressed the
candidates at an
orientation in Abuja, at
the weekend, ahead of
their departure, said he
was fulfilled to see
qualified Niger Delta
youths being given the
opportunity to be
educated in the best
universities in the
world.
"I am fulfilled. If I am
leaving as Adviser to
Mr. President, I will
leave happily. Sincerely
nothing gives me a
greater joy than to see
that Niger Delta youths
can now be educated
in the best universities
across the globe. The
best Mr. President can
give you is education.
It is the only thing you
receive that can never
expire. Honestly I am
fulfilled", he said.
According to the S.A.,
about 3, 000 youths
from the region have
been placed in various
world-class universities
and other tertiary
institutions of learning
across the globe as
part of the Amnesty
Programme with a
view to building
human capacity in the
region that could key
into the oil and gas
industry based in their
communities.
Kuku told the elated
candidates that they
could not afford to fail,
given the special
privileges they have
been accorded and that
they must not only be
of good behavior in
their countries of
study but equally do
the president and
Nigerians proud by
coming out in flying
colours.
He explained that the
scholarship
programme, for which
the 89 candidates were
the first set, was
designed to provide
human capacity
development even
among the youths in
the region who did not
carry arms in the days
of militancy in the
region.
According to him, the
Amnesty Programme
has become so
successful that it was
beginning to create
problems for these
prosecuting it.
"The success we have
achieved is beginning
to give us problems.
People are beginning
to ask, 'so those who
didn't carry arms
should not be catered
for because they did
not carry arms'?. Those
who didn't carry arms
must be empowered."
The Amnesty
Programme boss,
however, warned that
no act of indiscipline
would be tolerated
from any student while
away in the UK or
Cyprus.