‘Why we instituted scholarship for Urhobo students’

By Lucky Oji

Pan-Urhobo group of professionals, Atamu Social Klub of Nigeria, has explained the reason for its recent scholarship awards to 10 students in institutions of higher learning.

Mr. Valentine Omamogho, president of the club, said they were motivated by the need to raise a team of skilled Urhobo indigenes to compete with their counterparts across the nation.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sunny Awhefeada, lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies, Delta State University, Abraka, has urged Urhobo leaders to mobilise their people with a view to creating a template for the development of their land.

Speaking at the awards ceremony in Agbarho, Delta State, Omamogho noted that but for the efforts of early leaders of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) like Chief Mukoro Mowoe, Chief Jereton Mariere and Joseph Akpolo Ikutegbe, the Urhobo people would not have been able to overcome the challenges of skilled manpower that confronted them at that time.

He, however, insisted that despite the efforts of the Urhobo leaders under the UPU umbrella, Urhobo people were still facing serious social, political and economic challenges that can only be overcomed with the availability of well-trained Urhobo indigenes.

Noting that a lot went into the project which started in 2006, Omamogho disclosed that the first recipients of the Atamu scholarships would get a total of N1.5m spread over three years.

The annual scholarship awards and other initiatives under the Atamu Education Endowment Fund, he pledged, would be handed over to a team of technocrats to administer after the test-running stage.