The CPC has received with mixed feelings the long overdue release of bursary funds to the 2011 set of the Nigerian Law School students of Kwara State origin. The eventual release of the funds is the bitter sweet result of the harrowing battles and struggles of the helpless students, civil society organizations, opposition parties and public spirited personalities in the state over a period of two years!

Although we are glad that the grant is eventually released, we however take strong exception not only to the insensitively belated release of the said fund but also the pathetic sum payable to each of the students from the funds. The CPC unequivocally deplores the tardy release of a grant meant for the October 2011 set of the Nigerian law school students in 2013! It is outrightly inexplicable of the PDP-led government to have inconsiderably held on to the funds meant to cuisine the effect of the exponential fee rise in the Nigerian Law School, thereby denying the students access to the grant at a time when it is most needed. It's patently inauspicious of the state government to have released the fund almost three years after, when of course the affected students have finished their BL Program and have been effectively called to the Nigerian Bar! Information at our disposal points to the fact that the majority of the would-be beneficiaries of the grants are currently undergoing their National Youth Service in different states of the federation. In saner climes, the grants are usually released at the point of registration for new entrants. This is with a view to lifting families that may find it difficult to pay the highly exorbitant fees of the Nigerian Law School, and thereby reducing backlogs arising from their inability to pay the fees.

The CPC also find extremely unfathomable, a situation whereby only about N150,000.00 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira), which sum represents a paltry 39% of the total school fees payable to the authority of the Council for Legal Education is paid in grant by the Kwara State Government to the poor students. Our party is aware that in compliant with the present fee regime, the present set at the Nigerian Law School paid a whooping sum of N287,000.00 (Two Hundred and Eighty Seven Thousand Naira) in school fees alone. This is not to talk of other ancillary fees paid and money expended on textbooks, laptop computer and accommodation. This does not also include money for their daily upkeep at the school. Our investigation has revealed rather shamefully that almost all other states in the northern part of the country, with the exception of Kwara state paid grants in the region of N300,000.00 and N500,000.00 with a Laptop computer for each of the beneficial students! The same case is obtainable in the South-South, and parts of the South-East. In fact, the above mentioned state governments were responsible enough to have either transmitted the grants into the respective Bank Accounts of individual beneficiary or took the extra obligation of directly awarding the cash at the respective campuses of the Nigerian Law Students of their state origin, thereby saving the students of the rigor, danger and expenses of travel. It is therefore highly disappointing that the stipend being handed out to the helpless students here in Kwara is hardly enough to offset their exorbitant school fees let alone cater for other consequential expenses. It is thus wickedly ironically that whereas the state government has though found it convenient to annually augment salaries and allowances of the few political jobbers who bring little or nothing to the table in terms of concrete performance in the state but unfortunately always develop cold feet when occasion demands that the bursary awards to the generality of Kwara students (at 5000 since 2005!) and Law School Grant (at N150,000.00 since 2006!) be upwardly reviewed.

We therefore challenge the PDP-led Kwara State Government to face modern day reality and stop dwelling in the past. We find it quite deceitful of a governor that not only mouthed a prompt release of the grants while begging for the votes of these same students towards the build-up to the last general election but also promised an upward review of same, to have totally abdicated his own part of the mutual bargain. The governor's action is not only capable of further widening the gap of mistrust existing between the public and public office holders who go cap in hand for votes during campaigns making promises that they never fulfill but also surreptitiously enshrining the art of deception in the subconscious of the Nigerian future leaders.

To the students, who are themselves now lawyers in their right, we at the CPC nevertheless congratulate your gallantry, perseverance and doggedness in fighting for what you rightfully deserve and entitled to. While wishing you journey mercies back to the state from your diverse stations (since the government is still foot-dragging on the suggested e-payment), we will like to use this opportunity to restate our party's commitment to its ideals and manifestoes which embodies not only a prompt release of bursary and institution of scholarship grants to all Kwara students spread across the world (an ideal that formed the vocal point of our gubernatorial candidate's campaign vision in the last general elections) but also an holistic upward review of the amount payable to the students to adequately reflect the socio-economic realities of the contemporary Nigerian.

Congratulations and Journey mercies to you all!!!

Alhaji Buhari Suleiman
CPC Chairman, Kwara State Chapter.