Wilfred Bonse, governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Cross River, has promised to provide 18,000 scholarships to tertiary institution students in the state.

Mr Bonse said this at a news conference ahead of the March 18 governorship and House of Assembly elections in the Sate on Monday in Calabar.

He said that his team had secured an international partnership network, a very robust scholarship arrangement for deserving students of the state.

The governorship candidate said the scholarship would be evenly spread across the 18 LGAs of the state, with 1,000 students per local government benefiting.

The governorship candidate stated that the scholarship programme would benefit students in tertiary institutions without discrimination.

He said that as an advocate of good and qualitative education, he will ensure that students are given all the support to ease their schooling experience.

“The only way to attain advancement for the state and the country at large is through education, especially science and technology.

“The destination University is Weldios University in Benin Republic where scholarships arrangements have been perfected for 18,000 students from the State.

“The programme has being fully paid for and no money needs to be paid by the parents or guardians of these deserving students.

“It is verifiable. It is authentic and not a campaign stint. Otherwise, we would have talked about 100, 200 or 300 persons,” he said.

He said that once the students qualify and are given admission, the campaign organisation would synchronise and provide stipend for the students to go to school.

“This is our little token towards unburdening the educational institutions which are already grappling with poor infrastructure for sound and qualitative education in the State,” he said.

He said that the current state of education is a far cry from where it should be and can no longer be acceptable.

“We also have the issue of strikes which we unfortunately can do nothing about from outside, we will make sure we deal with the root causes holistically if given a chance to govern the State.”

He said that more attention would be given to the teaching of science and technical subjects in secondary schools.

Mr Bonse said the initiative would produce more students in the state to qualify for admission to study science-related courses in foreign universities.

He promised that if elected governor of the state, his administration would focus more attention on lifting the standard of education at all levels.

The two week-long last lap campaign began in Cross River North with a visit to Obudu, Obanliku, Bekwarra, Yala and Ogoja local government areas among others.

Mr Bonse visited the Sarkin Hausawa da fulani Palace where he addressed the Hausa Community in the Bogobiri area of Calabar.

He also met with critical stakeholders, support groups and associations.

(NAN)