FCA SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION - THE IBUSA STORY OF CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATIONAL GROWTH

 FCA SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION - THE IBUSA STORY OF CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATIONAL GROWTH

It must be noted that Chief Fred Chijindu Ajudua did not initiate the idea of scholarship in Ibusa neither did he arrogate such claim to himself in any possible cloak. Before now, the pioneers of the Ibusa Union Nigeria had instituted scholarship awards for the people of Ibusa.

Records available to the community show that the pioneers set out to assist Ibusa boys who had promises to attain higher education and went on to implement it. However, the scholarship scheme was by individual donations from pioneers of the Union in which Mr. Williams Esekodi and Akaeze Ejor reportedly made the highest donations to the cause.

Two of the recipients of this early Ibusa scholarship were Francis Halim of Umuodafe and Justus Isor of Umuisor who were aided to Christ the King College, Onitsha for further studies. C. A. J Nwajei was also a beneficiary who went to England to study Law. He would later return to the country as a qualified Lawyer in 1949.

One of the notable philanthropic contributions of Fred Ajudua to Ibusa was the FCA Scholarship Foundation established for Ibusa indigenes in all the states and federal institutions and also Ibusa students schooling in the Ibusa community. The Scholarship Board provided financial aid provided to students from Ibusa but it was unofficially extended to other indigenes of Anioma and afar. The scholarship aided several of these students in completing their studies during their university days.

The FCA Scholarship Foundation of Chief Fred Ajudua was established on June 1, 1991. The Scholarship Foundation was one of the philanthropic arms of Chief Fred Chijindu Ajudua, the Man of the Philanthropy in ensuring that every Ibusa indigene anywhere in the country had access to education for as they say, education is the bedrock of the society. Fred Ajudua, himself a beneficiary of formal education; an educated lawyer, also coming from a highly educated family, understood the importance of education to the people of his community. Moreover, his drive would seem that modern Ibusa was founded on education courtesy of the colonial officers who for some reason, picked interest in the community and invited some of the earliest schools to the people.

As far back as 1908, Sacred Heart Elementary School had been established in the community, and by 1928, Ibusa had become blessed with the prestigious St. Thomas Teachers Training College or St. Thomas's Practicing College. The institution being one of the earliest in the defunct Southern Nigerian Protectorate, contributed to the educational emergence of some of the brightest personalities who subsequently served the community. With the likes of Obi Senator Nosike Ikpo, who would become the first man from the community and the second man in the political history of Anioma to represent the present people of Anioma at the Nigerian Senate, A. W. O. Inugonum and Emmanuel 'Kwasa' Amatokwu, two of who would later choose the principles and profession of pedagogy; all passing through the institution at one time or the other, the future of modern Ibusa became laid on education.

It was this line of action that young Frederick Ajudua, at age 31 ponderingly decided on, a philanthropic gift whose future impacts on the community many enlightened Ibusa minds of the time predicted. To ensure a conviction, fairness, public scrutiny, and even distribution of objectives, some bright minds from the community were chosen to run the Foundation and they embraced it. The composition of the administration of the Foundation is as listed below:

Obi Senator Nosike Ikpo - Chairman
Chief Emma Onwuachi (the Ochiligwe of Ibusa) - Vice-Chairman
Chief Emma Odigwe Onianwah (the Ikejiani of Ibusa)- (Secretary)
Chris Nwarache - (Treasurer)
Mr. Chris Nwani - (PRO)
Hon Chief Willy Ikolodo - Member
Alhaji Dania - Member

Once the Foundation started and seriousness and fulfillment were seen by them, they attached credibility to it with everyone helping to pass the necessary information required for qualification by the trustees to the Ibusa public. The scholarship award team then went from one Nigerian institution of higher learning to the other attending to the Ibusa students seeking financial academic aid from the Foundation. The Trustees were physically present at interview locations as far as Lagos. They had had questions posed to the students seeking the grant and the questions usually tested their Ibusa claims of nativity. It was in Lagos that some students, standing before the panelist became unable to defend their rehearsed claim and they consequently lost the grant. Since the grant was for Ibusa indigenes, only the smart non-indigenes cunningly received it.

The effort of Fred Ajudua and his team in this regard was a testimonial devotion to the support of the educational life of Ibusa students being that the Scholarship arrangement was most organized under the supervision of the community's brightest indigenes of the time, the most widespread among young Ibusa students aspiring education and till date, the biggest scholarship that happened in the community.
Furthermore, the Foundation characterized quickness, methodical means of identification of Ibusa indigenes, and objectivism.

The Foundation ensured that Ibusa students in state and federal institutions of learning made benefits but as said earlier, it extended beyond Ibusa to other communities within the Anioma area who cleverly claimed Ibusa nativity and succeeded. A certain Nwankwo Ofuokwu from Ogwashi-Uku was one of the beneficiaries of the scholarship who also testified to the gain personally made by him and so were others. The fact that any scholarship of this magnitude is a huge benefit to a community, and in this case, the youths of Ibusa cannot be gainsaid.

Quite often several recipients of the scholarship overtly and proudly open up on their benefit. One of them is David Chimaeze Okonji from the Umuehea axis of the community who not only admitted the reality of his benefit but pointed out that nearly all the 1996 alumnae of St Augustine's College, Ibusa were recipients of the FCA Scholarship Award of the time.

There is no doubt that the scholarship scheme was a uniting force that bound the Ibusa people, instilling a sense of brotherhood in the people. It also assisted the people to reap the fruits of education. Unfortunately, scholarship ideology also appears to be dying in Ibusa but requires to be revisited for the promotion of education among the people.

Excerpts from the book, "Man of the Philanthropy: A Biography of Fred Ajudua and the Beauty of Modern Ibusa," (Unpublished) By Dr. Emeka Esogbue

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