Pascal Oparada
While the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is enmeshed in crisis at home, over 200 international students on the scholarship of the Commission are facing hard times abroad.
Their plights have been compounded by the Coronavirus pandemic which has seen most of the students, who took up side jobs to support themselves, being laid off as companies close shops because of COVID-19.
In an Instagram Live interview by Nigeria Students Union, United Kingdom (NSUUK), the students said they have been left in limbo by NDDC after arriving in the UK for studies.
Most of the students interviewed said after receiving the initial N500,000 take-off grant from the Commission, nothing more has been heard or seen from the Commission.
A Masters Degree student at the Mumford University, Leicester, Samuel Ogar, who studies Cyber Security, said he had to pick up a job at a care home despite the danger of Coronavirus in the care homes, to support himself since the NDDC stopped sending his tuition and allowances as far back as September, last year.
According to Ogar, he has an eviction notice from his agent hanging on his neck and the University has threatened to issue an invoice in his name instead of the NDDC.
Ogar said he would have been sleeping on the street if he did not take up a job at the care home since the factories and warehouses where most of the Nigerian students work have been closed down due to COVID-19.
According to Ogar, “I was forced to write a letter to Leicester City Council asking them for help for accommodation.
“My agency asked me to leave the home where I live if I am not able to pay the rent. I had to pick up a job at a care home because NDDC has shut their ears and doors against us,” Ogar said.
He said they have tried several times to reach out to the Commission via social media but discovered that it has disabled and shut the Direct Message feature on its Twitter account.
Olukayode Olugbemi, a lawyer and Master’s Degree student of International Commercial Law at the University of Aberdeen described the situation as ‘terrible’.
Despite having a good job in Nigeria before he left on the Commission’s scholarship, Olugbemi said he was assured that what happened with scholarship students in the previous years would not happen to them.
He said because of the structure of his studies, he cannot afford to take up any side jobs as he does not have the time to do so.
According to him, he has been footing the bill for his rent and currently has two rent invoices hanging on his neck.
Olugbemi’s words, “I have exhausted all the funds I came to the UK with and have had to draw from my savings back in Nigeria.
“So, even if the NDDC fails to come to our aid and I am unable to get any job here, I will be stranded when I get back to Nigeria because the whole thing has been a mess.”
Olugbemi added that about 20 NDDC scholars at the University of Aberdeen are going through the same crucible, if not worse.
He mentioned that most of the NDDC students at Coventry University are facing dire situations because they have been abandoned by the Commission.
Olugbemi continued, “We’ve not had any formal communication with NDDC since we left Nigeria. Every other communication we had has been informal.
“Recently, I applied for a fund from some donors but one of the questions they asked was when was the last time I had communication with my sponsor and I had no answer,” Olugbemi said.
He said the Commission was forced to pay the takeoff grant of N500,000 in March. “And that is the only payment we have received to date,” he said.
According to him, the Commission made a blanket statement on social media that it needed to take their documents to the Central Bank of Nigeria for processing and that because of the restrictions on interstate travel, it has been difficult to do so.
The students had, in May, this year, sent a letter to the Senate President Ahmad Lawan complaining that life for them abroad has been compounded by the Coronavirus pandemic, which has prevented them from even engaging in menial jobs for survival.
“While we had survived with working as bar attendants, warehouse assistants and even care workers during these nine months of being sent overseas without upkeep, this ‘assistive’ source of income has been lost due to the COVID19 pandemic,” said about 25 students who signed the letter to Mr Lawan on behalf of the “2019 NDDC scholars.
“With the pandemic, scholars are unable to meet up with their basic obligations like rent and feeding and are living on the constant threat of ejection by their landlords in different parts of the world.”
The students said the NDDC also failed to pay the $30,000 to cover tuition and upkeep for all the other students who were able to leave Nigeria for their respective schools in the UK.
The Niger Delta Ministry responsible for NDDC is currently embroiled in controversy as the Nigerian Senate is said to be probing Godwill Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta for corruption.
Anti-Corruption campaigner, Prince Kpokpogri, had asked the Senate to discontinue the probe and focus, rather on the stranded scholars abroad. According to him, the scholars were supposed to receive their allowances but haven’t because of alleged corruption in the Commission.
“Mr. President Sir, the tuition fee and maintenance cost of $30,000,00 ought to have been paid immediately on resumption and arrival of students in respective countries of study.
“For clarity sir, scholars resumed in September 2019 while others resumed in January 2020. Till date, no one has received the payments.
“Not only are the universities tired of writing to the commission without any form of acknowledgement, but the universities have also now locked out the majority of students from their online portal, meaning students who resumed in September 2019 can no longer continue to work on their dissertation for Masters students, and students who resumed in January cannot register for their next semester courses and PhD students can no longer access university services for their research.
“In addition to this, universities have now transferred the tuition debt to scholars and have given scholars tight deadlines to make payments, otherwise they would be reported to the respective immigration offices for eventual deportation.
“This is nine months of the lives of some of the brightest Nigerian students about to be thrown in the refuse bin of history,” Kpokpogri said.
The Nigerian Xpress could not immediately establish if the Commission cleared the backlog and what it is doing about the complaints raised by the scholars.
