It was an evening of excitement and celebration as successful as 2016/17 Chevening awardees from Nigeria mingle with the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, and past Chevening Scholars from Nigeria.
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Chevening Scholarships are the UK Government’s overseas scholarships, awarded to individuals with demonstrable leadership potential who also have good academic backgrounds. The scholarship not only offers financial support for people studying for a master’s degree at any UK university, it also allows beneficiaries become part of an influential global network of 46,000 alumni. In 2015, 45 Nigerian benefited from the fully funded scholarship.
Leadership Newspaper reports that people who had made it to become Chevening Scholars were being ushered in, some with their guests into the residence of the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency Paul Arkwright.
Omoboyowa Roberts, one of the beneficiaries of the 2016/17 Chevening Scholarship, told LEADERSHIP that, “this for me is a dream come true, something I had always looked forward to even from my university days. I am going to be studying, Masters in Peace and Development at Leeds Beckett University.
“I think it’s a global opportunity to meet with other scholars and to be a part of the alumni, and above all to be able to get the investment where you can come back and develop Nigeria as a whole, so, it’s been a fantastic opportunity, and I am happy to be privileged to be a part of the global network,” she said excitedly.
This year, Nigeria had the most applications for Chevening scholarship, about 4000. The High Commissioner also stressed on the importance of funding the programme so that more Nigerians could be beneficiaries as he called on the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to encourage their best to apply for a Chevening scholarship, as the scholarship needs more people in the civil service and government sectors.
Big names such as Channels television’s John Momoh, Nigeria’s Comptroller general of Immigration and many more have benefitted from the awards, including the Ministry of Foreign affairs Permanent Secretary, Audu-Rafiu Olusola Enikanolaiye. Supporting the network would in turn not just aid social networking, but provide opportunities for future generations of Nigerians.
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Chevening Scholar, with an offer at London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine to study Health Policy Planning and Financing, Chinwe Chikwendu, said “Perhaps why I am actually most excited is because it’s not just me, from my family here tonight, my younger brother happens to also be a beneficiary. We are going to the same university; we are going to do the same course, so I bet you this goes to show the level of transparency that is actually applied in the Chevening scholarship selection, because if there was any other thing that is considered then both of us would not be here tonight. I want to say, a big thank you to UK government first of all for the Chevening scholarship scheme, because this is just something very wonderful that has really helped so many people achieve their dreams, it is also something that has given many people the opportunity they had never really imagined they would get. So it’s something really wonderful, and I think the best way to reward the British government and Chevening, is for us to go out there to the UK and make the most of the opportunity.
Credit: Leadership News
