Since the launch of Coastal NEWS early this year, people have emailed us, spoke to us on phone and even in our recent interview with Oba Earnest Adeoye ldepefo, the Majuwa of llutitun, the question in everybody's heart is "What's going on with the IWC Scholarship Award program?". Coastal NEWS contacted the IWC President and a few executives of the IWC to comment on the status of the scholarship, what they had to say then was that "we are working on it, when it is time, we would make an official release" .
A few minutes ago we receive an email via the IWC facebook group, about the scholarship programme and here is the full text. Please endeavor to leave a comment and let us know what you think.
>>>“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” Will Durant
"Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave." Henry Peter Broughan
“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people” Chinese Proverbs quotes.
On behalf of the financial members of IWC, Board of directors and the executive members I apologize for the delay. It is not that we do not have genuine reasons for this delay-being the first time, distance, communication gap between US and Nigeria, desire to do things differently and thoroughly, global financial constrain e.t.c, keeping the applicants in suspense was not part of the calculations but it did occur. It is better late than NEVER. I hope Ikale will appreciate what we had to go through in order to get to this level. We are happy to say that the final announcement is just weeks away.
Of more than 1500 application forms distributed through our Obas, and our local government offices, the following 14 out of the Ikalemejedinlogun (towns) gave us feedback (by returning application forms).
1. Aiyede
2. Aiyeka
3. Ajagba
4. Akotogbo
5. Erinje
6. Igbodigo
7. Igbotako
8. Igogan
9. Iju-Odo
10. Ikoya
11. Ilutitun
12. Irele
13. Ode-Aye
14. Okitipupa
Note: As at the time of this release we have not received ant application form from the following towns- Iju-Osun, Igbisin, Iyansan, and Ome
Screening/collation was done at the following levels
• Collection and collation
• Initial screening of package for ‘quantity’ completeness
• Secondary screening for quality completeness
• Screening for authentication
• Verification of personal/family/educational information
• Grading of essay
• Collation/shortlist
• Final selection
This is the first time we will be doing this and for the fact that we have to undergo the rigorous steps above you can now see why it has taken us this long. We have gone through this learning curve and we believe that by the time we go through this again things will be less cumbersome.
IWC nay Ikale is grateful to our Obas for their total support for this program, they took it upon themselves to disseminate information and distribute the forms. We are equally grateful to our two local government offices through their leaderships. Mr. Bola Olagbegi was the anchor in the publicity and distribution/collection of the forms. Thanks
Even in this trying period Ikale is still blessed with individuals that are dedicated selfless and above board in their actions. Chief SK Ogunboye, Abayomi Akeremale (Commissioner of police), Biyi Ikujuni will forever be remembered for painstakingly going through the many application forms with standardized criteria to have our short list and Ayo Lijirin for his invaluable critiques of the basis of the shortlisted candidates and for making it possible for us to have the hard documents of the shortlisted candidates at this time. At the appropriate time when Ikale history is reviewed/written posterity will be at hand to do justice to your contributions. Note: Professor Isaac Akindutire was contacted and he accepted to participate in this exercise but distance was a big problem. Thanks
Again it should be understood that this is the first time IWC will embark on something like this, that this is not an award by an individual, that we have to do things differently, if we do then we should see the delay as part of a process. It might be late in coming we have to make sure that we get it right. To the applicants we apologize for the delay, and to those doubting the implementation of this scheme, we say watch out.
