Scholarship Beneficiary Names Son After Victor Umeh as Senator Disburses N64m to 326 Students

By Tony Okafor, Awka

Gratitude turned into a living testimony in Anambra on Tuesday, January 13,2026, as one of the beneficiaries of Senator Victor Umeh’s long-running scholarship scheme named her first child after the lawmaker who rescued her educational dream.

The beneficiary, Nnajidemma Ogechukwu, a nursing graduate of the Millennium College of Nursing owned by the Awka Anglican Diocese, revealed that she and her husband named their baby boy Victor in honour of Senator Umeh, whose scholarship made it possible for both of them to train and qualify as nurses.

Ogechukwu, who was visibly emotional, disclosed that she was already pregnant when she benefited from the scholarship support.

According to her, the decision to name the child after the senator was taken as a vow of gratitude.

“When Senator Umeh gave us this scholarship, I was pregnant. My husband and I agreed that if God blessed us with a male child, we would name him Victor as a testimony of what this man did for our family. Today, our son bears his name,” she said.

The revelation came during the distribution of N64 million scholarship funds to 326 indigent but brilliant students drawn from communities across Anambra State.

The event was held at Cana House, Awka, where the funds were disbursed directly to beneficiaries through Fidelity Bank transfers.

The beneficiaries were students who had gained admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of nursing but were unable to pay their school fees.

Speaking at the event, the Secretary of the foundation administering the scheme, Sir Emeka Anaeto, traced the growth of the scholarship programme, describing it as one of the most consistent privately funded educational interventions in the state.

He said the initiative began in 1999 with about N1.9 million awarded to a handful of students, was formalised in 2007, and has now expanded to N64 million, benefiting students beyond Anambra State.

Anaeto said that over the years the scheme has produced lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers and other professionals, noting that beneficiaries are drawn from 58 communities of Anambra Central Senatorial District with at least two students selected from each community.

He added that the programme cuts across religious denominations and has also extended support to seminarians and priests.

Addressing the beneficiaries and their parents, Senator Umeh, who represents Anambra Central Senatorial District, said his commitment to supporting indigent students predated his political career and was further inspired by his brother, Mr Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party.

He recalled that even before joining politics, he had been assisting children in his Aguluzigbo community in Anaocha Local Government Area whose parents could not afford school fees.

He said he later decided to place greater premium on education, following the example of Peter Obi, who consistently emphasises that investing in the education of young people is the most effective way to develop society.

Umeh disclosed that he personally sourced the N64 million distributed under the scheme this year in response to repeated appeals from students who were at risk of dropping out due to their inability to pay school fees.

He urged the beneficiaries to justify the investment by striving for academic excellence, noting that some past beneficiaries of the scheme had graduated with first-class honours.

One of the beneficiaries, a graduate of Architecture from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), narrated how Senator Umeh rescued her academic pursuit in 2015 when she could not pay her admission acceptance fee at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko.

She said the senator not only paid the acceptance fee but also sustained the payment of her school fees throughout her studies, a support that enabled her to graduate from UNN with a BSc in Architecture.

In a brief remark, former governor of Anambra State,Mr Peter Obi described the Umeh scholarship initiative as phenomenal, stressing that education remains the most important asset an individual needs in life and the strongest tool for productivity and societal transformation.

He said it is the lives changed through such interventions that ultimately change society, expressing confidence that the beneficiaries would one day extend similar gestures to others.

As the funds were credited to beneficiaries’ accounts on the spot and emotions ran high at the ceremony, one of the parents present, Mrs Rose Okechukwu, remarked that the naming of a newborn child after Senator Victor Umeh stood out as a powerful symbol of how sustained investment in education and a single act of compassion can echo across families and generations.