A social contract, not a political endowment, Ikechuchukwu Ezeugwu promised to make additional impoverished students from the remaining 36 states of Nigeria beneficiaries.
In presenting the checks at the 10th anniversary of the foundation and the opening of the office building in Enugu on Thursday, Ezeugwu declared that he would continue the charity even though he would not be running for office in the 2023 elections.
He charged the recipients to always work hard and remember where they were coming from, noting that good name is always better than riches.
According to him: “This has nothing to do with politics; so long as God gives me the opportunity, I will continue, we’ll keep doing it and I’ve extended it to the south east states. Now we have 21 undergraduates and today we give cheques to 23 undergraduates and we are looking at extending it to 36 states of the federation. We should do unto others what we expect others to do to us. Once one is educated, he will achieve self-esteem. I went up to PhD level just to develop myself.”
A Board of Trustee member of the foundation and deputy Chief of Staff to Enugu state Governor, Prof. Malachy Okwueze said that he was inspired that the lawmaker awarded scholarships to all the people they recommended at the commencement of the awards eleven years ago.
“They all had traces of indigence, and he later extended the award from his Udenu constituency to Enugu north senatorial district, to Enugu state, and now to the entire south-east. Today Ikechukwu Ezeugwu has brought back the scholarship award of the past with which people used to go to schools. If we on our own cannot establish a foundation, let’s support one that is founded,” Okwueze charged.
One of the premier beneficiaries of the scholarship awards who is now a trained medical doctor, Dr. Okwudili Ukwueze narrated that he was stranded on how to proceed with his admission offer into the university to study medicine when suddenly Ezeugwu intervened with the scholarship award.
Dr. Ukwueze also disclosed that another of his colleague on the Ezeugwu scholarship award who is now doing a postgraduate medical study overseas still has a 50 percent scholarship from the foundation and prayed God to pay back the lawmaker for his charity.
