South East Supremacist Project Rewarded by Dr Taiwo After Alex Onyia Dropped Yoruba Champion – A Betrayal of Merit?

A United States-based Nigerian hydrogen specialist, Dr Michael Taiwo, has doled out N1 million in rewards to three South-Eastern students who won gold medals at the International STEM Olympiad in Rome . The beneficiaries – Chimdiebube Onwubiko, Onyedikachi Egejurum, and Don Anele Munachimso – were sponsored by Alex Onyia, CEO of Educare, a man with a well-documented history of ethnic favouritism .

Here is the part they are not telling you. A Yoruba boy won the competition that would have taken him to Rome. He was the first. He earned his place. But Alex Onyia dropped him. He was replaced with the second and third-place winners – both Igbo. The Yoruba boy who won fair and square was sent home. His dream was crushed. Not because he was not good enough. Because he was Yoruba.

Now, Dr Taiwo, a Yoruba man, has stepped forward to reward only the Igbo students who benefited from that ethnic manipulation. The Yoruba champion who was wrongfully excluded was left with nothing. No recognition. No reward. No acknowledgment.

This is the same Alex Onyia who, in 2024, unveiled a 12-month education action plan specifically designed “for Ndi’Igbo” to get “every child in Alaigbo back in school” . He organised the South East Maths and Science Olympiad from which the Rome delegates were selected . His initiatives have consistently and deliberately excluded Yoruba and other non-Igbo beneficiaries.

Now, Dr Taiwo, a Yoruba man, has joined the bandwagon, rewarding only the Igbo students while the Yoruba gold medalist was left with nothing.

The question now is this: why would a Yoruba man reward an Igbo-dominated project that deliberately excluded a Yoruba champion who won the competition fair and square? Is this a case of misplaced generosity, or is there something deeper at play?

Dr Taiwo has every right to spend his money as he pleases. But when a Yoruba man uses his resources to reward a project that systematically excludes Yoruba champions while his own people watch from the sidelines, it raises uncomfortable questions about loyalty and self-respect.

Will Dr Taiwo ever consider rewarding a Yoruba student with his own money? Or is his generosity reserved only for those who do not look like him? The silence on that question is deafening.