Federal Government Denies Abandoning Nigerian Scholars In Morocco

The Federal Government has dismissed reports alleging that Nigerian scholarship students in Morocco have been abandoned, describing the claims as misleading and deliberately crafted to misinform the public.

The clarification followed widespread concerns on social media, triggered by a video shared on X (formerly Twitter) in which activist Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, spoke with Nigerian students in Morocco who alleged years of unpaid allowances, homelessness, and lack of medical support under the Federal Government scholarship scheme.

But, reacting in a statement issued on Wednesday, the Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Boriowo Folasade, said the narratives circulating in some quarters were “false, unfounded, and deliberately crafted to misinform the public.”

According to the statement, the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa, insisted that, “No Nigerian student on a valid Federal Government scholarship has been abandoned.”

Alausa explained that all beneficiaries enrolled under the Bilateral Education Scholarship Programme before 2024 had received payments up to the 2024 budget year, stressing that any outstanding payments were due to fiscal challenges.

He said such delays were “attributable to fiscal constraints and are currently being addressed through ongoing engagements between the Federal Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance.”

The minister also dismissed claims that new bilateral scholarships were awarded in 2025, stating that “no new bilateral scholarship awards were made in October 2025 or at any time thereafter.”

He described documents circulating to suggest otherwise as “fake, unauthenticated, and a calculated attempt to mislead the public and discredit government policy.”

The statement further explained that the discontinuation of government-funded bilateral scholarships abroad followed a policy review, which established that Nigeria now has “sufficient capacity within its universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education to deliver the affected programmes locally.”

Consequently, the government now supports only scholarships fully funded by foreign governments, with “all financial obligations borne entirely by the host countries.”

Despite the policy shift, the Federal Government reaffirmed its commitment to students already enrolled under previous arrangements, noting it would “continue to support them until the completion of their programmes.”

The ministry added that students who wish to discontinue their studies abroad may formally apply to the Director, Department of Scholarship Awards, and would be offered the option of returning to Nigeria for seamless reintegration into suitable tertiary institutions, with return travel costs covered by the Federal Government.

Alausa said the current administration is determined to reform the scholarship system, noting that “past practices that sponsored overseas training for courses already well established in Nigeria placed avoidable financial burdens on the nation.”

He concluded that the reforms are aimed at “promoting transparency, accountability, and the prudent management of public resources,” while rejecting “misinformation, blackmail, or any attempt to undermine policies designed to strengthen national capacity and safeguard the integrity of the education sector.”