RSSDA Has Favoured The Poor – Odema

Betty Alali Odema, a physically-challenged, recently returned from the UK where she went for studies on Rivers State Government scholarship. Upon her return, she narrated her difficulties and successes during her stay there to our features writer, Arnold Alalibo: reporter, John Bibor and photographer, Nwuieh Ken.

Life on the wheel-chair is ultimate despair. It is a world of immobility, of sitting in the iron chair and tugging with the arms. It is a life that pulls the break on a bubbling existence; that brings a racing athlete to standstill and reduces the energetic performer to a vegetable.

Trapped in the wheel-chair, you see the world go round about you but you sit back and watch. You curse the day you lost the springy power of your feet and leave all else to fate.

But while this is the general lot of the disabled, a young lady and a physically-challenged, Betty Alali Odema, has reversed her fate on the wheel-chair. She grappled with her predicament firmly and turned round from helplessness to success.

Her success story began with her sojourn in the United Kingdom in search of knowledge. The tale was that of doggedness, resoluteness and patience.

Initially, she was not taken seriously, not even the Rivers State Government that awarded her and her physically-challenged colleagues overseas scholarships through the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency, RSSDA, thought she could achieve such huge success.

Rarely betraying any excitement while she spoke with The Tide, the mother of two narrated how the process leading to her award of the scholarship began.

Hear her: “I went through the process of picking a form. They brought the form to the home. That was the first time it was happening anyway for persons with disability to get involved in the programme. When Amaechi came Amaechi said that persons with disability had to be involved in the programme.

“Initially it was just able persons. He sent the forms to the home. Six persons took the form. Initially we didn’t believe it because we thought it was politics. We went through the process, we wrote the examination and we went through the oral interview and we passed. All the six of us passed”.

Odema, who hails from Abua/Odual Local Government Area of Rivers State, attended Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in international relations with a second class honours (upper division).

Her first impression of the school, she added, was favourable as the institution was able to cope with the twelve disabled persons admitted from Rivers State. She disclosed that the school had to adjust the timetable in order to accommodate them while they were also given a concession of ten minutes lateness to class.

“It was a kind of strange to them having to cope with twelve disabled persons. We were six from the home and six from other homes and compassionate centres. So we were twelve but they had to adjust; they made a lot of changes. They adjusted the timetable and allowed us ten minutes late,” she stated.

In the course of her studies in the UK, the Abua-born graduate of international relations won three prestigious awards. They include: Vice-Chancellor’s Award (2013); Nottingham Trent University Acceler8 Employability Award (2012) and British Educational Council International Students Shine Award (2011). She told The Tide that she was given the Vice-Chancellor’s award for her humanitarian gestures. According to her, about one hundred and eighty countries applied but only twenty were listed and Nigeria was among them.

“Well, while I was a student, I entered for one award from the British Council itself. That award gave me the opportunity to do more things for society. Every December I had a party for Nigerian students that could not come home. Every December I hosted over hundred persons with my own money.

“Apart from that I did fund-raising for the students to assist those students who were unable to pay their tuition fees. And I have been a good student in my academic work. That award was given because I took the university out. They were looking for what would take the university out. One hundred and eighty countries applied and just twenty countries were listed and Nigeria was one of them and I was from the university,” she boasted.

Odema commended RSSDA for ensuring transparency in the process and selection of scholarship candidates. According to her, but for the transparency, she would not have had the scholarship. She noted that the award was representative of both the rich and the poor and gave the Agency a ninety percent score for its performance.

“The process of obtaining the scholarship is transparent. Everything is transparent. You will see every category of persons. You will see the poor. The government kept a percentage for those who did not have connection. The process is not biased. RSSDA has favoured the poor,” she emphasised.

She, however, identified untimely payment of students as a major challenge and suggested that the Agency could facilitate payment by opening international account for the programme.  Such move, in her view, would ensure prompt payment of funds.

“They should have an international account for this programme so money can come when it is meant to come. Sometimes it is being delayed. For me I think that is vital because the fund does not come as it should,” she advised.

Like any serious-minded student experiences, Odema admitted that the most difficult challenge she had while studying in the UK was going through the rigors of academics. In that clime, she pointed out, merit and hard work were the keys to success in one’s studies.

Nevertheless, she explained that her current challenge upon her return from the UK was how to secure a job. Given her ‘lack of connection’ and physical condition, Odema was pessimistic about getting employment. She advised the Rivers State Government to seek job opportunities for the returning students. For her, the job fair the government had commenced was a good way to start.

“My most difficult experience is the academics. It is hard. If you are not in it don’t get involved in it. If you know that you are not ready to study, do not get involved in it…. What I am worried about is not getting a job, because I am back now and I don’t have a job. I grew up here.

“This is my home. I don’t have the connection other persons have. So my fear is how will I get a job? So I am here and I am looking for a job. That is my fear if I will ever get a job. My fear is will I be given a chance to give to society what I have learnt,” she lamented.

Raised at the Chesire Home (home for handicapped persons) in Port Harcourt, where she currently resides, Odema was full of praises for the Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, for giving  slots to disabled persons in the scholarship scheme. She described him as a man of his words and urged him to retain the quota allotted to the physically-challenged.

“Amaechi is open. He cannot say something he cannot do. That is what I have noticed. He said that every person should be involved in the programme. We went. Some persons don’t believe that we were there. They don’t believe that we went. I am an example. I went there; I did what I was supposed to do. I took the award I was given and brought it home. I would not have had a chance, but he believed everyone should be given the opportunity. That is what every leader should do,” she stressed.