‘Make best grades’ — Otuaro asks PAP’s scholarship students to justify FG’s investment

Dennis Otuaro, the administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), says students under the programme’s foreign scholarship scheme should justify the federal government investment in them.

The late former President Umaru Yar’Adua-led administration established PAP in 2009 to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate ex-Niger Delta agitators.

In a statement on Monday, Igoniko Oduma, the media aide to Otuaro, said the PAP’s administrator spoke during a meeting with the scholarship students in the United Kingdom (UK) on Sunday.

Oduma said Otuaro urged the students to justify the federal government’s investment in their education and sustain the record of academic excellence by their counterparts in other foreign countries.

“As PAP scholarship students abroad, it is very important that you study hard and aim to make the best grades in your academics,” the statement reads.

“That is what you have been sent here to do, and that is what you are here to do and nothing else. Nigeria deserves nothing less than good conduct and sterling academic performances from you.

“We will always prioritise your scholarship and welfare because this is one avenue through which we can achieve our goal of closing the existing gap in the human capital development of our region.”

Otuaro noted that President Bola Tinubu is impressed by the success stories and academic performances of the students at home and abroad.

He thanked the president for his efforts to foster the transformation of the region while urging the students to be good ambassadors of the programme, and the country at large.

“Let me take this opportunity to inform you that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is very happy with the fact that PAP scholarship students are making first-class and second-class upper divisions in various courses of study, particularly in the sciences, engineering, and clinical sciences,” he said.

“Therefore, the Niger Delta is properly captured in Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which is why he is very supportive of the office in terms of the educational and vocational programmes we carry out to deepen the reintegration phase of the programme for the benefit of our people.

“We are immensely grateful to Mr. President, and that is why I urge you all to take your studies seriously and don’t disappoint the Federal Government, the PAP Office, and the Niger Delta region where you come from.”