Monday 2 September 2013

Boy orphaned at nine wins Shell varsity scholarship



At nine years, Master Lucky Ayolu, from Ekeni in
Southern Ijaw Local Government of Bayelsa State,
lost his father and mother. Expectedly, life became cruel to him as he learnt
to fend for himself. He told our correspondent that
he took to fishing to pay for his fees in primary
and secondary schools, as his grandmother,
whom he stayed with, did not have enough. However, as someone who is destined to succeed
in life, Ayolu, now 17 years, has become a
beneficiary of Shell Petroleum Development
Company’s overseas scholarship. The scholarship scheme, whose yearly budget is
about N120m, and managed by Bassan West
Cluster Development Board, saw Ayolu as one of
the 14 beneficiaries. Ayolu, who spoke to PUNCH Metro, said his life was
a testimony that “absolute faith in God and hard
work are very important in life.” He said, “Life has been unkind to me. But today, I
have every cause to glorify God for lifting me up
beyond my imagination. “At a point, I lost hope completely and started
nursing the idea of taking my life. It was so bad
that when I heard about this scholarship, I could
not raise transport fare to the venue of the
examination.” Ayolu said one of his cousins assisted him
financially to obtain the scholarship form and also
gave him transport fare from Ekene to Yenagoa
where the test took place. “At the end of the test, I was successful. I am
going to read Computer Science at Wisconsin
University, Ghana. The discipline has been my
lifelong ambition and I am grateful that God has
used my community and Shell to make the dream
a reality.” He advised other youths in difficult situation not
to give up, saying that with hard work and trust in
God, they would achieve their desires. He also urged the governments at all levels to look
into the plight of the orphans in the country. “Governments should look into the plight of
orphaned children in the country. They should not
abandon them. The government should institute a
scholarship scheme for the orphaned,” Ayolu said.

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