The Chinese Scholarship saga

Listening to the Minister of Education and Minister of Information & Communication over the radio and also reading a story on the same issue in the African Champion, makes me feel that this matter should be laid to rest and let the students continue with their lives.
As a victim, I want to tell the people of Sierra Leone the truth once and for all and let the matter be laid to rest.
This problem started in 2007 when the All Peoples’ Congress came into governance. I was one of the 28 students that left the shores of Freetown for China and 12 of us got the scholarships directly from the Embassy that same year.
The new Minister, Dr Minkailu Bah categorically said all 12 of us are aliens because he doesn’t know us and don’t care about us, as we got our scholarships outside his ministry.
But during the days of Dr Wurie, he made the point that so long the scholarships are given to Sierra Leoneans, his government will do all in its power to take care of them.
Now we have a new dispensation and they think otherwise and they have changed the status quo to suit their own system. So according to the minister the cabinet has taken a decision that they will never support students that receive scholarships outside the ministry of Education.
I would like Sierra Leoneans to understand that the Chinese government throughout the universe gives scholarships through government and their embassies. Before APC ascend the throne, they have been giving scholarships directly to institutions and nobody in this country ever heard of such problems as everything was going fine because the former ministers were human and were full of love and pride for their country nationals as they fully supported all students studying abroad.
If what he minister says is true, then I think we should not blame him because he is working within the confines of the law.
If I have to blame anyone, I will blame President Ernest Bai Koroma, who on two occasions met with the students in 2008 and 2009 during his visits to China.
In 2008, I was in China when the Students Union of China met and pleaded with him to rescue the situation that has been escalated. He was with five ministers when he made the commitment that on his return, he will solve the problem amicably.
But I was not unfazed with his promise because after making the promise he then gave $5,000 to the Students Union as assistance. This did not go down well with me because I believe that any president who is working on policies will not behave in such manner.
In my own opinion at that time, I said to myself that he just wanted to dismiss us that was why he gave the money. True to my feeling, it came to pass as he did nothing.
He was in China in May this year for the Expo and he was confronted again with the problem, he again told them the same thing that on his return he will take appropriate action once and for all.
The president is being dishonest, because he should have made it clear to them that there is a cabinet decision on such matter, so he will not be able to intervene. That would have settled the matter and nobody will talk about it anymore. But as this government is preaching about change of attitude, and their slogan for development is ‘Agenda for Change’ why are they so dishonest to their conscience. This will not stop the Chinese Embassy giving out scholarships directly, students that will have the opportunity to study in China from the Embassy will mange out there and they will return back to help in the development process. It’s just unfortunate that the so called Attitudinal Change is a farce because they are now thinking negatively because of greed, politics and share wickedness. I urged my colleagues to stay calm and continue their studies with what they receive, they can manage it until they return, because not all of us will come from the North, or belong to APC.
By Austin Thomas