By Linus Aleke
The unbending reality that light cannot be fully appreciated by inhabitants of the earth unless they experience darkness often replicates itself in virtually everything we do in life.
From the blankness of the front or back of a currency note or coin, which, invalidates the usefulness or otherwise of the note or coin, as a medium of exchange, to the academics who hide under what is called the school of thought to express a divergent opinion on any given concept, the list is endless.
What this means is that there is no absoluteness outside God. Every other thing that exists, positive or negative complements each other. It is on the strength of the above-stated hypothesis that the divergent opinion that is trailing the European Union-funded scholarship programme across the globe is premised.
And that is why a question like, is the EU scholarship scheme; education assistance to the rest of the world or a dragnet to poach the best brains to meet the widening demand of modern skill sets in the ever-changing world of IT and technology?
Few pessimists have likened EU-funded scholarships, either at the multilateral or national levels to the US Marshall Plan to develop Europe after the devastation of the Second World War.
A journey memory lane will unravel the subterranean motive of US authorities in developing and funding the Marshall plan for Europe.
Data from the US National Achieve titled, ‘Marshall Plan (1948)’, revealed thus, “When World War II ended in 1945, Europe lay in ruins: its cities were shattered; its economies were devastated; its people faced famine. In the two years after the war, the Soviet Union’s control of Eastern Europe and the vulnerability of Western European countries to Soviet expansionism heightened the sense of crisis.
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“To meet this emergency, Secretary of State, George Marshall proposed in a speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, that European nations create a plan for their economic reconstruction and that the United States provide economic assistance.
On December 19, 1947, President Harry Truman sent Congress a message that followed Marshall’s ideas to provide economic aid to Europe. Congress overwhelmingly passed the Economic Cooperation Act of 1948, and on April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the act that became known as the Marshall Plan.
“Over the next four years, Congress appropriated $13.3bn for European recovery. This aid provided much-needed capital and materials that enabled Europeans to rebuild the continent’s economy.
“For the United States, the Marshall Plan provided markets for American goods, created reliable trading partners, and supported the development of stable democratic governments in Western Europe. Congress’s approval of the Marshall Plan signalled an extension of the bipartisanship of World War II into the post-war years.”
With the US’s hidden intentions to invest in the development of Europe post World War II unravelled, a background search for the objectives of Erasmus scholarship will to a reasonable extent, illuminate or invalidate the perspective of the sceptics.
Data from the EU website reveals that “the Erasmus Programme (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) was launched in 1987 and since then it has provided European students with the opportunity to experience student life in one of the 33 programme countries.
“The European Union’s Erasmus Mundus programme aims to enhance quality in higher education through scholarships and academic co-operation between the EU and the rest of the world. The three main objectives of the programme are linked to the internationalisation of students, staff, curricula, and research; ensure an influence on the development of practice in Special Education Needs and inclusive education; and develop international collaborative networks, projects, and research.”
It is on the strength of the US government’s hidden intentions to create a market for its products in Europe, which propelled its Marshall plan that the pessimists theorized that what the Europe Union is doing with the scholarship is to poach the best brains across the world using scholarship as the poaching and exploitative instrument to poach the best brains, train them to their taste, and entice them with mouth-watering job opportunities to stay back in Europe, while their native countries continue to lack the required skill sets to advance with the rest of the world.
ThisNigeria also spoke to some of the awardees to dispel or validate this strong notion by a few informed citizens, on whether they would love to come back to Nigeria after their studies or stay back in Europe as being insinuated in certain quarters.
But before, we bring in their responses, it is imperative to also dwell a little on the thoughts of stakeholders during the pre-departure orientation programme for the Erasmus+ scholarship awardees.
Of course, it was a breathtaking moment for EU and Nigerian officials, friends, and families of the 2022 Erasmus+ postgraduate scholarship awardees, as well as prospective awardees, who had converged at Women Development Centre, in Abuja, the venue of the Pre-departure Orientation and Study in Europe Fair.
During the event, speaker after speaker, eulogized the resilience and dexterity of Nigerian students, while also applauding the European Union for the scholarship opportunities.
The role of education in personal, institutional, national, and universal development also featured prominently in these solemn but brisk speeches.
The remarks validated the thoughts of the anti-apartheid veteran and former President of South Africa, Mr. Nelson Mandela, on education, when he said: “a good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special”.
This irrefutable truth is very much valid today as it was the day the statesman first uttered it.
Welcoming participants at the Pre-departure Orientation and Study in Europe Fair in Abuja, the European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms Samuela Isopi, said education plays a very important role in the lives of everybody.
Isopi said, “Erasmus programme is the EU flagship programme to support education and youths. As you know, the case of Nigeria clearly shows a very good example of win-win cooperation. For Nigeria, I think it shows three basic things.
“First, the high and great potential of the EU/Nigeria, people-to-people cooperation. Second, the will of the European Union and its member states to open up, to offer legal migration pathways and opportunities for Nigerians to travel and study abroad based on their capacities and abilities.
“Thirdly, I talked to the representative of the Ministry of Youth. It clearly shows our commitment to creating concrete opportunities for Nigerian youth. As a former US president used to say I think it was Franklin Roosevelt. We cannot always build our future for the youth, but we can build our youths for the future. And of course, education plays a very important role.
“But education is much more than employability because education gives the values based on which we actually work and live together. And this is what the Erasmus program is all about. Connecting and uniting people, and young people across Europe and the globe. To build a new generation of world citizens, keen to work together for peace, prosperity, and the common good. So this year, we want to celebrate these achievements, but also to further boost our cooperation with Nigeria.
“On education, we have decided to combine the traditional Pre-departure Orientation event with a Study in Europe Fair. We expect to receive today more than 2000 visitors. This is just the first time we organized this fair, in a few months we promise we can meet to make it bigger next year.
And I would like to thank all European Union member countries and in particular, those that are participating in this fair, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. That will showcase also their bilateral education programme and opportunities for the Nigerian youth.
“And now let me turn back to you the awardees. Today’s your day. Today is the day to wish you all the greatest success in your studies. You will be the ambassadors of Nigeria across Europe over the next few years. And once you’re back, we hope, we expect you to become true ambassadors of Europe in Nigeria,” she concluded.
The Deputy Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Mr Chris Jibreel Maiayak in his remarks also, underscored the pivotal role of youth as critical stakeholders in nation building.
However, in an interview with ThisNigeria, one of the Erasmus+ scholarship awardees, Mr. Alfred H. said his short-term goal is to achieve his master’s in Large Scale Accelerators and Lasers and move on to do a PhD in Geophysics.
He noted that with PhD, he would return to Nigeria to work at the Centre for Energy and Development and also help in Nuclear Physics and Particle Accelerator Physics Research.
When asked, if given a good opportunity to stay back in Europe after studying, he said: “If I am given a good opportunity to stay back in Europe, yes I will stay back but at the same time I will also see how I can inspire the next generation of young Physicist like me to come over to Europe for studies with the view to return to Nigeria. My staying in Europe will not be for the long term, it will be for the short term”.
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Another awardee, Mr Chisom Ebere, said he going to Europe for a Master’s degree in social work, children, and youth.
On whether he will return to Nigeria after his studies in Europe, Ebere said, “My dream has always been to be a professor, so after my masters, I will proceed to do my PhD first, then I will settle for the best offer that comes my way either in Europe, Nigeria or any part of the world.
“If I get the opportunity to stay back in Europe and work, I will harness the opportunity but regardless of that my country is one of the top priorities”.
When confronted with the same question, Mr. Ahmed Suleiman, another awardee said, “I think, that personally depends on my long-term goal, because I want to be an international researcher. So, on completion of my program, my major priority is to pursue a PhD degree where I can focus on medical imaging and machine learning. I have identified the need for research facilities for medical image analysis in Nigeria.
“My major priority upon achieving my goal is to be able to establish a good research institute in Nigeria that will focus on medical image analysis. The need for this is simply because there are lots of people with physical disabilities in different states in Nigeria.
“Most times, these things occur because of poor identification of medical imaging, so, having a proper research institute that works on it is my long-time goal. I believe that going into this program is just a step forward to achieving my goal.
“So, I will still go for PhD programme and work towards establishing a research institute here in Nigeria. My program has to do with artificial intelligence, so, most of the work we do is computer-based.”
With the response from these few respondents, only time will tell whether the pessimists have a genuine concern or not, but in conclusion, the scholarship programme like the EU ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS would always say, “It is a win-win situation for Nigeria and Europe”.
