The last batch of the 200 Sokoto State-sponsored students to study medical and paramedical courses abroad are to leave the country on 4th May 2021 to Ukraine.

The executive chairman of the Sokoto State scholarship board, Altine Shehu Kajiji, made this known in his office during a farewell meeting with the affected students and their parents.

The chairman said, the delay of their departure was due to the problems encountered in their visa processes in the country’s embassy as well as the global COVID-19 pandemic which we all witnessed in the past one year or so.

Kajiji said that, “all the necessary arrangements with regard to their departure has now been concluded adding that , the 3 students will by Grace God join their colleagues in Ukraine to start their studies as the state government has paid all the necessary finances regarding their studies.”

He then charged them to reciprocate the state government gesture by putting in more efforts in their studies.

In his remarks, one of the parents of the students, Hon Zakari Muhammad Shinaka, thanked the state government and the Sokoto State scholarship board for fulfilling the promises and the commitment shown despite the present economic woes facing the state.

Shinaka said they almost lost hope for this sponsorship considering long period of time taken as a result of the pandemic but not their conference is fully regained.

He called on the departing students to maintain their religious and cultural teachings while in their new place of study and be good ambassadors of the state and country as well as keep away from anti-social behaviours.

Responding, one of the students, Safiyyah Bello Kware assured of their commitment and desire to face their studies with all seriousness and be good ambassadors of Sokoto State and Nigeria at large.

She thanked the state government for being alive to its responsibility. (Sunday Tribune)

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