Some 16 corps members, who recieved the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Presidential Honours Merit Award are hanging on to threads of hope that the Federal Government will continue funding their PhD programmes in various universities in the United Kingdom (UK). They are blaming the Natioanal Universities Commission (NUC) for their dilemma. However NUC denies blame reports KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE.
• NUC: we are not to blame; no funds with us
In 2010, former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, added a juicy incentive to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Presidential Honours Merit Award for corps members who distinguished themselves in the course of their service year. It was a scholarship to study for Masters and PhD in any university in the world as long as they got admission within two years of the offer. That year, there were 51 of such recipients.
That Federal Government gesture was an icing on the cake for corps members, considering that they had already secured automatic employment in the government civil service for winning the award.
Jonathan said back then that the scholarship was to encourage young graduates to work hard.
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the Petroluem Development Training Fund (PTDF) were to provide funds for the programme with the National Universities Commission (NUC) acting as the clearing house.
While TETFund was in charge of scholars in medicine, sciences and other fields, the PTDF was in charge of scholars in the engineering field. The scholarship was to cover tuition (amount varied according to programme/institution), research support (10,000 British Pounds Sterling), living expenses (820 pounds monthly) – with additional allowances for passages, warm clothing, and laptop.
The former President made it a yearly affair, announcing the same award for 52 beneficiaries in 2011, and combined awards for 2012, 2013 and 2014 batches (about 164 in all) in March 2015 before he left office two months later.
However, the initiative has caused heartache for many beneficiaries, particularly those under TETFund as the funding stopped while many were still undergoing their programmes. They fear they might be forced to stop the programmes and deported as their institutions have already made repeated demands for payment.
The first set of beneficiaries left Nigeria for various universities, especially in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2012. On completing their Master’s programme, some went ahead to pursue their PhD.
Sixteen of them got approval from the NUC to begin their PhD programme with full sponsorship. Taiwo Shittu, a graduate of Agriculture from the University Ilorin (UNILORIN), Gini Joshua, a medical doctor trained at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), Oluwabamidele Kogbe, a graduate of Public Administration from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, were among the 16 recipients who completed their Master’s programme in 2013 and got approval from the NUC to begin their PhD programme in 2014.
They are presently in their third or final year of study. In phone and chat interviews with The Nation they said that their third and fourth year tuition fees had not been paid. While some received allowances for living expenses last year, others did not get any money from TETFund through NUC.
Kogbe, who is undergoing his PhD in Politics and International Relations at the University of Dundee, said he was last paid in 2016.
“NUC paid the tuition fees and allowances for my first year in 2015 and my second year in 2016 – that was the last payment I received from NUC. Presently, the NUC has not paid my tuition fee for the third year and the remaining allowances for the third and fourth year. What surprised me sometime last year was that NUC paid some of my colleagues their third year allowances despite that we all had the same approval and funds deposited with the NUC.”
Shittu, undergoing his PhD in Molecular Pathology and Genetics at the University of Bedfordshire, UK, was one of the ‘lucky ones’ who got paid living expenses last year. He said it did not come without several unreturned mails to the NUC.
“Our living expenses fluctuate depending on the exchange rate. It is between £11,000 and £14,000 yearly and we have to suffer and send many emails before NUC pays despite having our fund with them. NUC has paid my living expenses for three years. It remains for the fourth year. Some of my colleagues have only been paid for two years,” he said.
Gini, who is at the University of Liverpool researching “Clinical trials, pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics drug interactions and safety of antiretroviral drugs in HIV treatment”, has not also received funding since 2016. He said the situation got bad after Jonathan left office.
“We did not receive the best treatment during Jonathan, but at least our tuition was paid and occasionally someone responded to calls. But payments stopped after Jonathan left,” he said.
Gini said his university has given him until April to pay up or be shown the way out. He is at loss as to what to do.
The medical doctor also said he never got the full amount stated as living expenses and all efforts to get explanation for it was abortive as his mails were never replied.
“A breakdown of living expenses is £820 per month – the total of £9,840 per annum. Depending on the exchange rate and annual warm clothing allowance, it was supposed to be approximately £10,000 to £11,000 per annum. But I have never been paid the complete amount. I was paid at the rate of 600 per month approximately £7,200 plus allowances for the first year was £8,500 and £8,700 in the second year. All complaints were never replied.”
Surviving without funds
It has not been easy for the scholars to survive without funding from the Federal Government. They told The Nation they have had to do all sorts to survive.
Christabel Ihedike, who is pursuing her PhD at the University of Sunderland, said she has had some help from family to cover living expenses. But tuition remains unpaid.
“2016 was the last time I was paid. My elder sister in USA and my parents have been shouldering my upkeep all this while but the school fees has not been paid. School and School Credit control have sent mail and invoice to me on different occasions since my sponsor does not respond to their mails. I have written severally to the New Executive Secretary but no response. I am about to start my final year not knowing what the school will do this time because my last year fees has not been paid,” she said.
With a Tier 4 Visa, Gini said he cannot work more than 20 hours in a week, which is insufficient to raise funds. He said he has had to take menial jobs and depend on his wife to survive.
“Even if I wanted to work, my PhD is so demanding I cannot do much outsid academics. I also am not medically licensed therefore cannot practice.
“(Surviving) has been a miracle. I give credit to my wife. She does care job at night to take care of the bills. I sold my car and other properties to cope. The university at a point gave me a hardship assistance. My supervisor also assists occasionally by giving me some in-house cleaning and maintenance to help me cope. But everybody is getting tired now; it is becoming difficult to get help. There are times when I have been stranded but miraculously help came from these mentioned sources,” he said.
Shittu said of his experience: “I was nearly deported last year around August due to nonpayment of my fees to the university. I had to borrow money to pay the university to restate my studentship.”
Akin Oyawale, who is doing a PhD in Politics at the University of East Anglia, said he has had to borrow as well.
“I work part-time and survive on loans from family and friends. As a PhD researcher, I also teach at the university,” he said.
Scholars blame NUC
Many of the scholars accused NUC of refusing to pay their fees despite the funds being relesased by TETFund. Kogbe, who described the scholars as “victims of administrative injustice”, said: “TETFund has paid my funds to NUC. I was in Nigeria with Shittu in November. We were at NUC. They never denied the possession of my PhD funds. TETFund only stopped paying for others who are not part of the already approved list of scholars.”
Shittu also claimed same, saying: “The fund for our four-year programme was approved and released to NUC by TETFund (we have evidence). The past President mandated TETFund to sponsor our programmes and to be honest, they have been doing well through the NUC. My stand is that our money is with the NUC. The present ES might not know ‘much’ about our case. There are some directors that are involved from the onset -e.g. the present director of the ES office, Mr Chris Maiyaki; Director of Finance, Mr Sam Onazi.”
Gini said though the NUC allegedly got all the funds from TETFund, the scholars were told they could not get all the money at once as the NUC had to monitor their progress.
He said: “I remember we even asked them (NUC) a question, why not just give us the entire money and let us go instead of coming back and they said no, they needed to supervise our progress so they would pay as the invoice comes.
“The first two years I sent them my annual progress report, nobody ever responded. I sent letters because they were not paying the complete money. They paid allowance to me for the first two years; they paid school fees to the school. My problem was they were not paying me my complete allowance.
“As I am in the fourth year, nobody has ever visited me to see whether I am in school or not.
“In 2016, they sent us a letter after one year of not talking to us. They said for the 16 approved they would continue paying. I sent uncountable letters, nobody every responded. They try to sweep this our case under the carpet as if they never received the money.”
NUC, others’ reactions
When contacted by email, the NUC Director, Corporate Communications, Ibrahim Usman Yakasai, said the Executive Secretary, Prof Adamu Rasheed, was on leave. He however said the scholarship was now under the purview of the Federal Scholarship Board.
He wrote in the mail: “Mail and attachment received. Will revert back after New Year as the ES is on approved leave. However, even he if sees it I can confirm to you that NUC did not receive any money and failed to remit as appropriate. I can also inform you that the said scholarship has been moved to Federal Scholarship Board. You may wish to contact them also to establish the truth.”
The Public Relations Officer of the Federal Scholarship Board, Hajiya Fatima Jiddum, confirmed that the scholarship had been moved to the board – but without funding. She told The Nation it would be funded under the 2018 budget.
“The scholarship was moved to us in July 2017 but came with no funding. Some of the scholars seeking funding do not even have scholarship award letters from the Federal Government. For those that have, we have included them under the 2018 budget. Once the budget is passed, we will be able to pay them. We are in touch with them and have told them so,” she said on phone.
However, the scholars said they had not been contacted by the Federal Scholarship Board.
Shittu, their leader said: “Federal Scholarship Board (FSB) has never communicated with us officially – no letter, no email.”
Shittu also insisted the funds was with the NUC.
“NUC may have transferred our file but they are still with our money. NUC needs to be questioned. Left to us, we don’t have anything whatsoever with FSB. We are still with NUC because there is no official communication from NUC or FSB to us regarding us. We are not politicians so they cannot be using us to play games,” he said.
Efforts made to get Hajiya Jiddum to confirm that the names of the 16 scholars are among those to benefit from the 2018 budget proved abbortive as she did not respond to calls, texts and emails sent to her.
Responding to claims that NUC failed to transfer the funding to FSB, Yakasai told The Nation on phone: “Like I said in my mail, we did not receive any money that we did not remit. When we handed over to Scholarship Board, did they say see any money that we failed to hand over? The handover was done properly and they must have asked questions,” he said.
Former Executive Secretary, Prof Julius Okojie, under whose administration the programme started, refused to comment on the matter.
“Please go to the NUC. I have left the NUC for almost two years now. But the others are still there. You can ask them about the scholarship,” he said.
However, a source at NUC, who did not want to be named because of non-authorization to speak, said the funding for the programme was stopped by TETFund. The source said it was transferred to FSB when NUC no longer respond to invoices from the foreign universities.
Efforts to hear from TETFund proved abortive as calls, emails and text messages sent to the Public Relations officer were not returned.
State of the
NYSC scholarship
After the initial 16 scholars, subsequent NYSC scholars who did not get full approval from the NUC before starting their PhD programme, were forced to abort the programme as they were not funded. Some of them were deported to Nigeria.
In August 2016, the NUC wrote all the scholars (letter published on this page), saying TETFund attributed the delay in the release of funds to “the absence of a Governing Board which has the sole responsibiity for approving any financial allocation of this nature.”
The NUC warned the scholars abroad without approval they did so at their own risk.
Those corps members who won in 2014 and 2015 have not been mobilized to do their masters programme outside Nigeria.
The NYSC scholarship is not the only programme administered by the NUC that has been suspended. The Nation gathered that the Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme for Innovation and Development (PRESSID) has also been suspended because of lack of funding by TETFund.
The strictly merit-based scholarship was initiated to train the best of Nigerian graduates from both public and private universities for their masters and PhD in the top 25 institutions of the world. A total of 100 scholars with the best scores after a test conducted by NUC were chosen for the programme. After the first two sets went in 2013 and 2013, subsequent sets have not been mobilized.
A source said the suspension of PRESSID happened because some law makers claimed the scholars were only from some parts of the country while other parts were left out.
“They stopped it because some parts of the country did not do well in the tests and so were not chosen,” the source said.
