Senate President To Chevening Alumni: Proffer Solutions To Callenges Currently Facing Nigeria

Senate President Bukola Saraki on Friday reminded members of the Chevening
Association of Nigeria of their expected roles in the socio-economic transformation of Nigeria.


Saraki said at the 1st National Chevening Alumni Leadership Summit in Lagos that it was imperative for the Alumni to know what Nigeria had been grappling with.

The senate president told the Chevening Alumni that in spite of their outstanding capabilities, Nigeria was yet to achieve the progress she deserved as a country over the decades.


“We have not made the kind of progress we ought to have made as a country.“I wonder why we have failed to tap into the enormous reserve of skills and leadership that abound within you all.


“We must urgently begin to develop a system that puts our human assets to best use.

“We must urgently begin to create a system that enables us to put our best brains and minds in positions that they can contribute
effectively to the development of our country,’’ he said.

According to him, the Chevening Alumni in Nigeria must get involved in the provision of solutions to the challenges currently facing the country.

Saraki , who reminded the Alumni that the country was in still recession,said that for the first time in more two decades, the country’s inflationary rate was getting close to 18 per cent.

He said that the 8th Senate believed that the Alumni had a significant role to play in the development and economic growth of Nigeria.

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Paul Arkwright, said that Chevening was a global programme of Masters Degree Scholarship Awards to people who had demonstrated good leadership qualities.

Arkwright said that the UK-Nigeria relations were currently growing in the areas of security, infrastructure, skills and capacity development and trade relations.

Arkwright, who said that he was particularly proud of his government’s relationship with Nigeria, described the UK-Nigeria relationship as being about people.

“We, as a mission are very proud of the partnership embodied in the Chevening Alumni Association of Nigeria.“I am proud of our relationship with Nigeria. The UK-Nigeria relationship is fundamentally about people. And you represent a cornerstone of those people-to-people relations,’’ he added.