Introduction of New EXCOs to the Ambassador and other Embassy Officials.
An introductory meeting of the newly appointed members of the executive committee of the Association Of Nigerian Scholarship Students In Russia held at the Nigerian embassy in Moscow on the 25th of February, 2022. All the Executive Council Members with exception of the Vice President were present. The Ambassador of Nigeria to Russia, Prof. Abdullahi.Y. Shehu, the consular and financial attaché were present to grace the occasion. The City representative of Moscow was also present.
The meeting started with the opening remarks from the ambassador which was followed by the introduction of all the EXCOs present and embassy officials. After the introductions, the President of the association Gabriel Atser gave his speech. During the speech, he mentioned various topics of concern to the association such as the difficulties being faced by the students, stipends, academic issues faced by some scholarship students and the war between Russia and Ukraine. He suggested that as a form of encouragement, students who performed excellently can have document legalization fees waved by the embassy. He also acknowledged the performance of the football team in recent games.
After the speech by the president, the ambassador and other embassy officials were given awards to appreciate their immense support for and commitment to the association. Further discussions and introduction of innovative ideas were made some of which were the plans and preparation for the launching of the maiden edition of the ANSSIR magazine, introduction of talk sessions that provide platforms for ANSSIRites to learn from different sources and widen their knowledge capacity in different aspect of life and collaborations with other student bodies were brought up as possible ways of fostering growth of the organisation.
It was also mentioned that the achievements of past students should be included in the magazine because it will serve as a source of motivation for the students and encouragement to work harder in their various fields.
The Secretary reiterated the fact that proper awareness should be made about choice of schools in order to avoid cases of scholars being allocated schools in unsafe regions of the country.
The Finance Attache highlighted the managing of finances as very important due to economic issues in the country and the uncertainty of what will occur next in the coming months. Students were advised to be prudent in their spending and avoid unnecessary spendings which may be cause them more harm than good in the future.
The academic issues of the students were also discussed during the course of the meeting and the ambassador noted that students should be encouraged to learn the language very well because doing so will significantly ease the process of understanding the concepts of their courses properly after the language year and affirmed that it is one of the major reasons the Russian government provides the scholarships. It was also advised that while students are applying for the scholarship, they should select cities that are familiar with at least senior scholars studying there and not isolated cities.
Finally, the ambassador spoke on the security situation in the country and implored that scholars should not panic but stay vigilant. He reassured that the Federal Government Of Nigeria is aware of all that is going on between the two nations and will take actions immediately things seem to be getting out of hand. He added that messages should be sent to students expressing love and they should feel free to contact the embassy and reduce movement to unfamiliar places, abide by rules strictly, stay indoors and be vigilant. After the ambassador finished addressing the current issues facing the students, he proceeded to answer questions from the EXCOs.
The meeting ended with the closing remark by the ambassador in which he pointed out that it is a great privilege for us to be here as students and we should try to achieve something and make the best out of it.