By Donu Kogbara
Senator Anietie Okon –  pioneer National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Vice-Chairman of Arik Air and a National Conference delegate – is a very distinguished Nigerian. So when he takes the trouble to make a point, I listen carefully and take him very seriously indeed.

Earlier on this week, Okon expressed extreme displeasure in this newspaper on behalf of indigenes of his home state, Akwa Ibom.

Anietie Okon

Okon’s beef?

The office of Kingsley Kuku – the President’s Special Adviser on Niger Delta – had just published a list of 254 successful beneficiaries of the Special Scholarship Programme for Niger Deltan students – smart youngsters who had passed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME and had therefore qualified for admission to Nigerian universities.

And, strangely, there were only three Akwa Ibomites on the list.

Meanwhile, Bayelsa bagged a whopping 102 slots, while Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers got 3, 55, 10, 10, 43 and 28, respectively.

I don’t understand the rationale behind these highly skewed scholarship awards. Okon has described Akwa Ibom’s paltry quota as an insulting, grave and unacceptable anomaly; and he is absolutely right to be outraged.

When I spoke to him yesterday, he reminded me that Akwa Ibom is the biggest oil producer in our region; and, having once been privy to the results of a nationwide aptitude test that was organised by a Federal Government agency, I know from personal experience that there are plenty of academically brilliant Akwa Ibom kids! So let nobody tell me that only three of them made it onto this special scholarship list because only three of them managed to pass the UTME!

Furthermore, Godswill Akpabio, the dynamic Akwa Ibom State Governor, is a great performer who has been one of Mr President’s staunchest allies.

This is Nigeria, so I expect Mr President’s home state to get the lion’s share of any benefits that are being dished out by government; and, to be fair, Bayelsa also happens to be a substantial oil producer and therefore “deserves” lots of slots. But is 102 out of 254 not taking it too far in terms of favouritism?!

This being Nigeria, I would also expect Kuku to provide his own state with a disproportionate allocation (his people will thoroughly abuse him if he doesn’t find a way of giving them extra perks!). But, given that Ondo does not produce much oil compared to Rivers for example, is 43 not somewhat excessive?

As for Cross River, which did as badly out of this exercise as Akwa Ibom, no matter how little oil Cross River produces, three slots is ridiculously ungenerous.

This kind of blatant injustice creates politically dangerous ill-feeling. ALMOST EVERY NATIVE  of the Niger Delta cheered with joy when Dr Goodluck Jonathan became Vice-President in 2007 and MOST vigorously supported his Presidential election bid in 2011; and I share Senator Okon’s view that Mr President should intervene.

It would be cruel to withdraw scholarships from existing awardees, so instead of dashing the hopes of those who have already been told that their applications were successful, about 200 more slots should be made available.