The Arewa Defence League (ADL) has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s administration for allegedly abandoning the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) Scholarship Programme, accusing the government of politicising a policy built on diplomacy.

In a statement released Wednesday in Abuja and signed by ADL President, Murtala Abubakar, the group condemned the President’s silence amid protests following the collapse of the programme.

Describing the crisis unfolding beyond Nigeria’s borders as “one without sirens, but heavy with hunger, humiliation, and broken promises,” Abubakar stressed that the BEA programme was never a charity and was fundamentally sound.

“Education is not wasteful. Knowledge is not extravagant. The BEA scheme was never charity – it was diplomacy, cooperation, and investment in Nigeria’s future. Host countries paid tuition and accommodation. Nigeria paid stipends. It was a fair bargain, honoured for decades, even if imperfectly,” he said.

“Yes, the programme has always struggled with delays and bureaucratic cruelty. But never before has a Nigerian government so casually turned its back on students already in the field, already committed, already vulnerable. A nation may abandon roads and refineries, but when it abandons its children, especially in foreign lands, it abandons its soul,” Abubakar added.

He recalled that “in May 2025, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced that the government would no longer fund foreign scholarships, insisting that every course Nigerians studied abroad was now available, ‘and often of higher quality, within local institutions.’”

Abubakar noted that the decision followed a “thorough policy review.” Yet for students already scattered across continents, he said this review translated into abandonment.

Further condemning the development, Abubakar said, “The cruelty of the moment deepened when reports emerged that the same government, which claimed it could no longer afford the BEA programme, had quietly inserted N1.764 billion into the 2026 Appropriation Bill to fund 300 new BEA scholarships. The allocation, covering allowances, health insurance, travel, and other essentials, sits comfortably within the Ministry of Education’s N2.39 trillion budget. For the abandoned students, this was not a policy contradiction; it was salt in an open wound.”

“Why punish innocent students already midstream in foreign universities? Why deny final-year scholars the modest stipends that stand between dignity and destitution?” Abubakar asked.

He said the human cost is devastating. “From Morocco to Russia, from China to Hungary, Nigerian students have protested in despair. Parents have marched in Abuja. A former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has intervened. Still, nothing changes… Young Nigerians, sent abroad as ambassadors of hope, now live on borrowed kindness, shame, and uncertainty.”

“And President Tinubu has remained silent, playing politics with everything. Not a word on the protests. Not a word on the hunger. Not a word on the moral collapse of a programme built on diplomacy and mutual respect. This silence is perhaps the loudest indictment of all,” he added. (Leadership)