Several Nigerian students studying in the UK universities
under the sponsorship of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) said
they are still stranded abroad, despite the commission’s claim that it has
remitted money for their tuition and stipend.
The NDDC said in August that it has released over $5.9
million (about N2.28 billion) to 197 students who are of the 2019 batch on its
scholarship programme.
The commission said it had also begun the processes for the
payment of school fees owed 94 scholarship beneficiaries for the 2018 batch.
But some of the students – the 2018 batch – have come out to
say that the NDDC deliberately excluded them from the payment.
“The NDDC selectively handpicked those it paid without any
defined criteria and is refusing to pay fees, grants, and upkeep of 2018
scholars for no justifiable reason whatsoever,” the students said in a
statement they forwarded on Saturday.
“This came as a rude shock to us because historically, the
NDDC had always paid the fees and upkeep of scholars in the order in which they
were incurred, that is, from the earliest to the latest,” the statement added.
The students said their exclusion may have been to punish
them for protesting against the delay in the release of funds for the
scholarship.
The students refused to disclose their names for fear of
further ‘victimisation’.
They said there were at least 316 of them whose tuition fees
and stipends were unpaid before the latest release of funds by NDDC, and,
therefore, there are over 100 of them who were yet to receive funding for the
scholarship.
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“The full names, local and foreign addresses, local and
foreign phone numbers, school email addresses, local and foreign bank accounts,
admission letters, and data page of the international passport of all these
over 316 scholars are all available on the NDDC scholarship portal accessible
by the NDDC and its management.
“It is not true that NDDC has paid all its scholars because
as of date, the NDDC has not made payments to any of the outstanding scholars
from the 2018 scholarship cohort (amongst which are masters and PhD Scholars),”
the statement said.
“The claim by the NDDC that the IMC intends to travel to the
United Kingdom to verify the scholars is manifestly untrue and is another
attempt at hoodwinking the scholars and the general public.
“We wish to state that the 2018 scholars have been twice
verified by the NDDC: firstly, under the administration of Professor
Brambaifa-led management and then under the Interim Management.”
The students appealed to the NDDC management to remit the
money for their scholarship in order to save them from further hardship and
humiliation.
The NDDC management said on Friday, without substantiating
it, that the students were “hirelings masquerading as the Commission’s
scholars”.
A statement by the NDDC spokesperson, Charles Odili said the
students were part of “powerful individuals who are part of the systemic
corruption uncovered” by the commission’s interim management.
“In 2018, the Commission paid a total of $900,000.00 (Nine hundred
Thousand Dollars) only to cover the Commission’s obligations to its scholars.
“In 2019, the amount paid rose to a total of $3.5million
(Three million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) only. Recently, the IMC paid out
a total of $5.99m (Five Million, Nine Hundred and Ninety Thousand Dollars) to
cover all the verified obligations to our scholars.
“Now, there is a demand for an additional payment of
$3million (Three Million Dollars), bringing the total to an alarming $9million
(Nine Million Dollars),” Mr Odili said in the statement.
He added, “Some of the important questions everyone must ask
are: why is the amount paid to cover our obligations to this foreign
scholarship programme rising astronomically? Where are all these demands coming
from? What do they cover?”
Five of the affected students in an interview with
Premiumtimes via zoom on Friday expressed shock over NDDC’s action.
“We have tried
everything, we have reached out to the NDDC and the Nigerian authorities, we
have protested. We don’t know what else to do,” one of the students told
PREMIUM TIMES during the interview.
“It is more painful that NDDC could come out to disown us,”
another student said. “We are here in a foreign land and we have the door shut
against us by our own people, the very people who sent us here to study.”
NDDC was set up in 2000 by the administration of President
Olusegun Obasanjo to fast-track development in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region.
The region, 20 years after, still remains backwards in terms
of infrastructure and standard of living, despite the huge amount of money made
from oil-exploitation in the area.
The commission, with several of its abandoned projects
littered around the region, has been involved in corruption scandals which led
to its recent probe by the National Assembly.
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