A Nasarawa State-based Islamic organization, Islamic Society of Eggonland, ISE, has awarded a scholarship to 70 Christian students studying at various tertiary institutions in the country.
The Secretary-General of the group, Abdullahi Galle made the disclosure during a press conference at the headquarters of the organization in Nasarawa Eggon local government area of the state.
According to Mr Abdullahi, the scholarships were awarded to about 275 students for the 2019/2020 academic year, among them 88 Christians applied and 70 were successful.
He added that 102 Muslim were rejected from the 307 that applied with 205 Muslims successfully awarded for the year.
He noted that the scholarship covers tuition fees of all the beneficiaries studying in colleges of education, universities, schools of health, and polytechnics.
“The gesture to offer scholarship across different faith is to foster unity and understanding among our people.
“We are a charity organization and no religion preaches discrimination so we are out to see our people unite and leave as one.
“We have 404 students on our scholarship list, for now, we started in 2014, and 2019/2020 has the highest awardees of 275 students,” Mr Abdullahi disclosed.
The breakdown of the entre 404 beneficiaries of the association according to institutions shows that 188 students are undergoing BSc in universities, 38 in schools of health and nursing, 111 in colleges of education.
Others are 5 Ph.D. students, 20 HND, and 13 Msc.
He explained that the gesture is to assist students to pursue their academic programmes with minimal difficulty.
One of the beneficiaries, Timothy Isuwa, a Ph.D. student in the Nasarawa State University thanked the group, while urging other similar organizations to emulate the gesture.
He added that the scholarship would further portray Islam as a religion of peace that has nothing to do with discrimination.
“It will foster unity, peaceful coexistence and harmonious relationship among different religions,” she stressed.
