I really don't know how to start this but I pray this medium brings a solution to our problem.
I
write on behalf of over 50 students whom are all beneficiaries of the
Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC) foreign scholarship. In
September 2015, we departed for a 12 months Masters programme in the UK.
Prior to departure we were informed by NDDC staff that we would pay for
visa processing and travel arrangements with our own money with the
promise that our allowances would be paid within a month or two on our
arrival in the UK. This was shocking to me as I had imagined a
commission as big and well funded as the NDDC could easily make
necessary arrangements for such just like how PTDF does for its
scholars.
I was left with no option but to go begging family and
friends to raise the required sum for me to apply for a UK visa,
purchase flight tickets and estimated costs for three months
accommodation and feeding. I wondered if this was how a foreign
scholarship was meant to be. I almost gave up in seeking for assistance
but favour smiled on me and I was able to receive donations from family
and friends. With the money raised I purchased all I needed and
traveled. NDDC had promised to send our allowances by the end of
October. On arrival at school I realized that the accommodation was more
than I had budgeted for and so could not afford it. Fortunately I had a
friend that stayed in the next city and had to put up with him for the
time being pending when I would secure an accommodation on receipt of my
allowance. Fast forward to last week in November, NDDC officials in
their numbers visited us (They surely spent more than half our entire
allowance on their trip) promising we would now receive our allowances
before the year runs out. Now in the second week of January 2016 we are
yet to receive any allowance from NDDC or even assurance of when we will
be paid. This is five months into a 12 month programme and not a dime
has been sent to us. It might be surprising to note that the same NDDC
has paid tuition fees to the schools since they know that the schools
will not accept us without tuition fees which is far higher than the
allowances we are supposed to receive but for some funny reasons they
have refused to send a dime for upkeep(accommodation and feeding). Most
of us have tried contacting the officials in the scholarship department
of NDDC and all we receive are rude responses giving us the impression
we are begging for alms. Particularly one Mrs Sotonye, who is always so
rude on the phone whenever she chooses to answer calls to her phone and
would never reply text messages sent to her.
My question is how
do you send students abroad without giving them a dime for over 5
months? If there is no money for the scholarship why then send people
out in the first instance? But surely this is not the case as tuition
fees had already been paid. The idea of the scholarship is to relieve
our parents of the financial burden of furthering our education because
we are mostly not from wealthy homes. We have been forced to finds jobs
even though these jobs cannot pay for our monthly house rent. The NDDC
is not broke as to to say they cannot afford to send us our allowances.
It is sad to see corruption has killed every conscience in people as can
be exemplified by NDDC officials in charge of the scholarship whom I
wonder if they would love their children to be treated as such.
With
the recent ban by the CBN on the use of naira cards you can only
imagine our plights as even our parents are helpless towards our
situation. It is our hope the president GMB and the new acting chairman
of the NDDC Mrs. Ibim Seminitari will quickly come to our aid.
It
is our prayers that the bad eggs in the NNDC whom have continually
denied us our monthly allowances for months now will be investigated and
prosecuted so that future beneficiaries of the scholarship wont be
allowed to go through the torture we are currently going through.
Sometimes I feel regret... I feel regret because how do I bring out the
best in me when i have to constantly remind myself that my next day food
is not guaranteed coupled with the load of course work I have to battle
at night after school.
It is sad to see that the NDDC has truly
failed. One cannot only but imagine that maybe allowances meant for us
have been diverted for personal gains.
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