Tinubu Abandoned BEA Students Abroad, Broke Education Pact — Atiku Alleges

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of abandoning Nigerian students studying overseas under the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA), alleging that the government’s actions have left about 1,600 students stranded and without financial support.

In a statement issued yesterday, Atiku claimed that the BEA scholarship programme was quietly discontinued under the current administration without prior notice to parents or guardians, and without regard for students who were already midway through their studies abroad.

He explained that the BEA scheme, established in 1993 and revitalised in 1999, was designed to enable Nigerian students to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate education through bilateral arrangements with partner countries, describing it as a vital diplomatic bridge that has now been severed.

“What was initially described as a temporary five-year suspension soon metamorphosed into outright abandonment,” Atiku said.

According to him, the decision has left beneficiary students overseas without stipends, with unpaid allowances running into thousands of dollars per student.

“Their pleas are simple and desperate: pay the stipends owed, now more than $6,000 per student.

“Yet from the corridors of power came a cold, technocratic explanation: scarce public funds must be managed ‘responsibly,’ and money meant to keep these students alive abroad should instead be redirected home,” he added.

Atiku said the situation worsened between September and December 2023, when stipends were not paid, before allowances were slashed by 56 per cent in 2024—from $500 to $220 per month—and later stopped completely. He noted that no payments were made throughout 2025.

“The cruelty of the moment was sharpened by timing and tone. Hunger, rent arrears, and shame have become the daily companions of the beneficiary students.

“In Morocco, one student did not survive the ordeal, dying in November last year and turning quiet suffering into public grief,” he said.

The former vice president noted that affected parents and students had staged protests in Abuja at the Ministries of Education and Finance in search of answers, but their concerns were largely ignored.

He also criticised comments attributed to the Minister of Education suggesting that students who were “fed up” could be sponsored to return home, saying the remark reduced years of academic effort and sacrifice to a mere administrative issue.

“To anxious parents, it sounded like expulsion by neglect. Today, that pact lies broken,” Atiku said, adding that Nigerian scholars across foreign campuses are waiting not only for their stipends but also for reassurance that their country has not forgotten them.

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