Nigerian students, good ambassadors — Onwuliri

By Favour Nnabugwu & Raphael Izokpu CONTRARY to the perception that Nigerian students do not represent the country was overseas, the Minister of State I, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri has said that Nigerian students are good ambassadors. The minister who was proud of Nigerian students, argued that she has travelled wide hence knew what students from other countries do outside of their home country. Onwuliri during a courtesy visit by the National Executives Council of the Alumni Association of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, led by their national president, Barrister Andrew Oru in Abuja last week, disagreed with the view that Nigerian students dent the image of their home country when they are in other countries. Prof. Viola said, “It is a sweeping statement to say that our graduates are not employable. I take an exception to that, because those of us in foreign affairs have been moving around and we know that our students have been making us proud in institutions outside the country. “And when l also went to some other countries, I engaged some of the institutions out there and you continue to get kudos about Nigerian students.” On scholarship for first class graduates: “We are getting them enrolled in the best universities in the world and they are doing us proud. Many of them have been employed in different international organisations. Even in international oil companies, you get Nigerians being listed as the best staff of the year in different countries. “I don’t agree that they are not employable, it is just that, perhaps, our former leaders do not put proper plans in place, you know, to absorb the products of Nigerian universities. In years gone by when there was ban on employment, the universities did not shut their doors. They were still graduating students and the system did not make any arrangement for employment of those students. “But today, we have the Sure-P programme, You Win and other programmes under entrepreneurship that the President has put in place so that everybody does not have get in to the civil service. If other leaders had done all that, I am sure that today, we would have had a huge network of these entrepreneurs that are employing other Nigerians.” - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/nigerian-students-good-ambassadors-onwuliri/#sthash.uGP556Ug.dpuf