The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the decision was part of a broader review of the government's foreign scholarship and bilateral education arrangements aimed at eliminating unnecessary expenditure and redirecting resources towards strengthening Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The scholars argued that decades after independence, Africa’s continued dependence on former colonial powers and other Western nations for economic assistance, political guidance and development initiatives had exposed the failure of its leaders to take ownership of the continent’s future.