The Chief Whip of the 10th Senate, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno, has launched a foreign scholarship scheme for 11 young graduates from Borno North, in what he described as the first legislature-facilitated international scholarship package in the state’s history.
The initiative, tagged the M.T. Monguno Foreign Scholarship Scheme, was unveiled in Maiduguri, where the senator formally presented the awards to the beneficiaries.
A statement from his media office in Abuja on Friday said the scheme will fully fund master’s degree programmes in India for the selected candidates, who emerged after a rigorous and transparent screening exercise.
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“Each of them holds at least a Second Class Upper degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics and passed an aptitude test conducted by an independent committee.
“The scholarship, worth hundreds of millions of naira, covers tuition, accommodation, living expenses, laptops, academic materials, visa and travel costs. The students will spend two years abroad, with the first year dedicated to coursework and the second to research”, the statement said.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Monguno said the scheme was designed as a direct intervention to rebuild Northern Borno, a region that has suffered years of insurgency.
He noted that the initiative aligned with Governor Babagana Zulum’s education-driven recovery agenda.
“This initiative is a deliberate effort to empower our brightest youths with the tools to compete globally and return home to rebuild our communities. Northern Borno deserves no less, and we must continue to rise above the scars of insurgency through education and opportunity,” Monguno said.
The senator pledged to sustain the programme annually, describing it as an investment in human capital that would yield long-term benefits for the state and Nigeria at large.
The move has drawn commendation from stakeholders, who said it set a historic precedent for lawmakers’ direct involvement in educational development and could inspire similar interventions across other senatorial districts.
