By Akeem Alao
The Chairman of Odi-Olowo/Ojuwoye Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, Abdul-Rasaq Ajala, has provided bursary award to indigent students within the LCDA, in a bid to reiterate his commitment to quality administration.
To ensure an open and unbiased exercise, he inaugurated a five-man committee comprising lecturers from the state’s foremost polytechnic, Lagos State Polytechnic.
On Friday 29th November 2019, the committee submitted the names of successful applicants to the Chairman and members of his cabinet.
While submitting the report, the head of the committee, Mr Tunde Williams, explained the modalities applied to scrutinise and select successful applicants.
He noted that some of them were interviewed one-to-one and some were interviewed on the phone.
He added that the following were the criteria employed to carry out the task.
- Evidence of residence in the LCDA
- Letter of admission from the schools of the applicants
- Evidence of studentship
- Evidence of birth certificate
- Evidence of tax payment and other dues by their parents.
- Applicant’s CGPA which must not be below 2nd class.
“The total number of candidates who applied for the bursary was 210 while 135 of these applicants were successful. 85 of the successful candidates were females while 60 were males,” Mr Williams said.
He therefore appreciated the Chairman and his team on behalf of the committee for the opportunity given to them to serve in that capacity.
While commending the committee to a successful task, the council Chairman expressed his delight over the promptness of the execution of the task given to it.
He stressed that the exercise was never designed to favor a category of selected students. He assured that any indigent students living within the LCDA would have equal access to the bursary as long as they merit it without necessarily seeking favor from anyone in government.
“If this exercise is successful, more people will benefit from subsequent ones. The intention was not to limit the number of beneficiaries, but to extend it to more students,” Hon Ajala explained.
While congratulating this year’s successful applicants, he noted that a better method would be devised in the next editions in order to enable students to apply from their schools without necessarily travelling miles to the council secretariat.
