Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of abandoning Nigerian students studying overseas under the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA), alleging that the breach has left about 1,600 students stranded without support.

In a statement on Sunday, Atiku claimed the BEA scholarship scheme was quietly discontinued without prior notice to parents or students, leaving many midway through their studies abroad.

He described the programme, which began in 1993 and was revitalised in 1999, as a “diplomatic bridge now left broken.”

“What was initially described as a temporary five-year suspension soon metamorphosed into outright abandonment,” Atiku said.

He noted that stipends owed to students had accumulated to over $6,000 per person, while allowances were first reduced by 56 per cent in 2024, from $500 to $220 per month, before being stopped entirely. He added that no payments were made throughout 2025.

According to him, the hardship has forced students into hunger, rent arrears, and shame. “In Morocco, one student did not survive the ordeal, dying in November last year and turning quiet suffering into public grief,” he revealed.

Atiku criticised the government’s justification that scarce funds should be redirected home, describing it as a “cold, technocratic explanation.”

He also condemned remarks attributed to the education minister suggesting that dissatisfied students could be financed to return home, saying such comments trivialised years of sacrifice.

“To anxious parents, it sounded like expulsion by neglect. Today, that pact lies broken,” he said.

He noted that parents and students had staged protests in Abuja, demanding answers from the ministries of education and finance, but their appeals were largely ignored.

Atiku concluded that Nigerian scholars scattered across foreign campuses were waiting not only for their stipends but also for reassurance that their country had not forgotten them.