Some beneficiaries of the foreign scholarship scheme of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) are presently lamenting their ordeals, following their alleged abandonment by the commission.
The affected scholars, mostly of the 2014/2015 batch of the scheme, accused the commission of abandoning them in the cold to rot away in foreign land without payment of their tuition and maintenance fees.
One of the affected scholars, Mr. Francis John (real name withheld), who spoke with The Tide in a phone interview, said the collective hope of the students of a rosy educational career in the United Kingdom has been dashed.
He said 200 beneficiaries emerged out of 3,000 applicants in a thorough academic test, and awarded scholarship letters of $30,000 for 1 year’s Masters Programme and $30,000 yearly for three years’ PhD programmes, but that the fees were never paid, accordingly.
The scholar said that some beneficiaries “have been unable to either continue their programmes or barred from collecting their certificates after graduation, due to a catalogue of debts on maintenance and tuition fees”.
He said; “As a result of non-payment of scholars’ tuition fees throughout the first semester, many students were forced to obtain loans from Nigeria to pay the bills after a long time”.
The move, he said was to meet registration deadlines and avoid cancellation of studentship and immigration status.
According to him, some of the students were now being chased by the universities’ credit agencies, as a result of high indebtedness.
The affected scholar said the misery they now pass through in foreign land was never envisaged at the initial stage of the programme, as they counted on the assurances of NDDC’s transparency in the scholarship scheme.
The scholar expressed disappointment over the antics of the NDDC toward the running of the scholarship scheme, alleging that the scheme was beclouded by “political colouration and partisan interest”.
“I don’t know why the 2014/2015 batch is being treated this way. Those who came to the scheme in January this year have had their tuition and other fees cleared. Is it because Dan Abia, the former MD, who belongs to PDP signed our letters? We have been use for political experiment”.
According to John, “Most of the affected scholars now walk out on daily basis on the street of their host countries in search of menial jobs to survive. We now live like destitute in the UK”.
He further explained that, “The commission asked us to send bank details after months of apparent silence from them on the matter, but money was never paid into our accounts”.
This, he said, led to a protest at the Nigerian High Commission in UK, which forced the commission to release some payments in 2016, of which most of the scholars were not paid.
The protest, he noted, prompted a visit of the NDDC’s delegation to scholars in respective universities in the UK and US, explaining that to date, no payment has been made.
He called for quick intervention by the Federal Government to save the affected scholars from further suffering.
It would be recalled that the present board of NDDC had emphasized the commitment of the commission towards sustaining the funding of the foreign scholarship, which started under the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government.
Efforts to get official comments of the NDDC on the matter were not fruitful as several calls sent to the commission were not replied.

Taneh Beemene