The Embassy of Russia in the country has urged Nigerians to explore opportunities provided by the ongoing Russian government’s scholarship programme in order to improve themselves educationally.
Press Attache of the Embassy, Mr Ivan Lydkin, made the call Wednesday in Abuja while addressing the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) executive.
He described the scholarship programme as Russia’s way to strengthen its bilateral relations with Nigeria under its reunification initiative.
Mr Lydkin said one of Russia’s missions here is to introduce Nigerian students to Russia’s academic opportunities to enable them improve themselves.
“We have organised interactive sessions in Nigeria for Russia Alumni in the country who are over 10,000.
“We work with 30 courses and offers full educational programme and our programme has been growing bigger and better over the years.
“The scholarship affords allowances from the Federal Scholarship Board of Nigeria (FSB)
“We have 40 educational programmes across 32 universities which offer courses based on candidate’s choice,” Lydkin said.
He explained the six conditions necessary for the historic Crimea reunification with Russia, despite its undoubted legitimacy and lawfulness, which
include Crimea referendum, international law perspective, and legal status of the city of Sevastopol.
Others include Russia military presence on the peninsula, geopolitical rationale and common law perspective.
Also, head of the international students’ office, Mr Renat Yalyshev, lauded the scholarship initiative and urged Nigerian students to apply in order to secure better education in the future.
He said Russia has universities for all engineering, science courses and the humanities.
“The St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI” for instance, is the oldest University founded in 1886; where you can be offered all direction of computer sciences.
“We have school of electronics and automation; we have very good experience in technology.
“A Nigerian graduated there in 1972 and since then Nigerians have been graduating from the school,” Yalyshev said.
NANS President Danielson Akpan, who led the delegation of NANS executive, commended the embassy for the scholarship initiative and promised to pass the information to his colleagues.
He said what Russia was offering was quite commendable, adding that their business was not just to coordinate student affairs. He said that the complaints they receive from students about discrimination bother them.
“We believe that there is no difference between us; we should see ourselves as one. We have received a number of complaints from our members out there.
“The concept of the exchange programme is important to us, but it is more important to address this issue, to allay fears by Nigerians who want to study abroad,” Akpan stated.
The programme designed for graduates and post-graduates under the auspices of the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA), provides scholarship opportunity for Nigerians to study in Russia.
Under the BEA scholarship, the Russian government takes care of the students’ tuition, while the Nigerian government pays each of the students 500 dollars monthly for their upkeep.
