The abandoned beneficiaries of the Niger Delta Development Commission 2019 scholarship have cried for help, following their exposure to hardship in the United Kingdom.
In a report published by the Punch on Saturday August 1, 2020, it was stated that the beneficiaries of the August 2019 scholarship for a master’s degree at a London university in the United Kingdom have been abandoned by NDDC.
According to the report, the Commission promised to pay each of the beneficiaries a N500,000 take-off grant to process their visas and procure flight tickets to their destination countries.
Apart from the take-off grant, the commission was also supposed to pay them $30,000 (N11.6m), which covered their tuition fees and living expenses.
The NDDC did not pay the N500,000 take-off grant until April 2020 – eight months after the scholarship was awarded.
One of the beneficiaries, Awele, a Delta State indigene who worked at a private clinic in Abuja until she got the scholarship, had to sell off some of her properties and borrow money to raise funds for her travel to the UK in October 2019.
Awele disclosed that she faced de-registration by the school and deportation by the UK Home Office due to the non-payment of her tuition fees a year after securing the scholarship.
“There are some of us who have been de-registered and what it means is that all the academic work that we’ve been doing for a year is null and void.
“The implication is that the school could say we are no longer their students and report us to the Home Office and throw us out of the country because we reneged on our agreement with them,” Awele said.
“Right now, I can’t read or concentrate on my studies; I’m constantly thinking, ‘When am I going to pay my tuition fees? How am I going to pay my rent? How am I going to eat?’
“At this point, I’m scared, devastated, worried, and depressed. I can’t even work on my project. I’m constantly thinking, I’m really in a bad state,” she added.
Another scholar is Olukayode Olugbemi, an Ondo State indigene. He graduated from the Department of Law at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, in 2015 before proceeding to study Master’s of Law in International Commercial Law at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
Olugbemi who was working at a Lagos law firm when he got the NDDC scholarship in August 2019 stated that he resigned, sold his car and other properties to raise funds to travel to the UK because the commission didn’t pay the N500,000 take-off grant promptly.
“I was working at a law firm before I obtained the scholarship, so it was easier for me to raise the fund.
“I know those who obtained loans while others sold off their properties to get money to process their visas and procure flight tickets,” he said.
“I had a good job before leaving Nigeria. I had a growing fantastic career and suddenly, I got a scholarship. I was excited and decided to take up the offer. When I was travelling, I sold my car and everything in my house.
“All I could gather from that is what I have been living on. I resumed school in January 2020 and decided to get a job to complement whatever I had,” lamented.
Over 200 scholars had been awarded the scholarship in 2019 to pursue postgraduate studies abroad, fully funded by the NDDC.
Each beneficiary was supposed to get N500,000 as take-off grant and $30,000 for tuition fees.
However, beneficiaries of the commission’s 2019 scholarship programme are currently facing a hard time abroad due to the non-payment of their tuition fees by the NDDC a year after they were granted the scholarship.
