- Stranded Rivers State medical students on scholarship abroad cry out.
About 159 final Year Rivers State students are stranded overseas with no certificates and accommodation as a result of the nonpayment of their tuition fees by the Nyesom Wike-led Rivers State government. Among them are dejected medical students whose hope of becoming medical doctors has been placed on edge.
I have been stopped from taking exams. I was not allowed into the hospital to see patients. I ought to have completed studies since last year but I am stranded here because the school cannot issue me a certificate.
FLORENCE TAMUNO, an indigene of Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area in Rivers State has been stopped from attending clinical rotations since September last year. The 26-year-old medical student of All Saints University, St. Vincent Grenadines is presently stranded in the Caribbean with no accommodation and food to eat. Her hope of graduating as a medical doctor has been cut short since she has been denied a certificate of graduation owing to a staggering tuition debt of USD 39,975.00. This is exclusive of hostel fees and living allowance.
Tamuno, who got a scholarship under the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSD) in 2013 after completing a degree in Physiology from a UK university, has not received study allowance from the Rivers State government since December 2014.
“I have been stopped from taking exams. I was not allowed into the hospital to see patients. I ought to have completed studies since last year but I am stranded here because the school cannot issue me a certificate,” she told The Nation in a wearied voice over the phone.
There are about 16 RSSDA sponsored final year medical students stranded at the All Saints University, St. Vincent Grenadines. This number does not include other final years students in fields such as engineering, Law, Science, ICT, etc scattered in various schools in India, Europe, Canada, UK and the Caribbean.
After winning the governorship election in 2015, Governor Nyesom Wike withdrew about 350 Rivers State students from various universities abroad, citing economic challenges for his action.
However, the governor promised to keep final year students and pay their tuitions in order to enable them complete their studies and earn a certificate. It was learned that the Wike-led government followed up its promise to cater for the final year students by writing to their various schools to plead for more time for the new administration to take shape before payments will be issued out. After the time elapsed, the government wrote again for another three months which also elapsed and the total waiting time has now culminated in a period of two years and some months. The final year RSSDA scholars, inclusive of the medical students, have not been paid any living allowance, leaving them as victims of eviction in their various hostels.
One of the medical students, a female who is presently stranded at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, who pleaded not to be named, told The Nation that she has had to engage in illegal activities to earn a living in the UK. Also, her medical tuition fees for two years stand at 26, 000 pounds, while 18 months accommodation and upkeep stand at 15,300 pounds. She confessed that the nonpayment of living allowance which ought to be catered for by the scholarship has led her into exceeding the legally authorised 20 working hours per term. She also had to contend with running night shifts from 7.00pm-7.45 am Mondays- Fridays, a dire situation which leaves her stressed and tired for lectures.
I wasn’t cleared for graduation since my fees are outstanding. I can’t apply for a job because I don’t have a certificate. I can’t even compete for little jobs which I am more than qualified for as a British College graduate. Sometimes I just ask myself, is this a blessing or a curse? We are here wasting away, while our mates have gone up to do higher things – she lamented, breaking into sobs intermittently.
With their dreams of wearing a ward coat and a stethoscope hung on their neck fast disappearing, it did not come as a surprise that many of them have been left dejected and depressed. The inability to pay their outstanding fees in their various institutions also means that they cannot return to Nigeria to partake in the National Youths Services Corps programme. They are also at a crossroads because they have not been issued a return ticket to come back home, leaving them abandoned without care.
‘Rivers State has abandoned us’
Another medical doctor in waiting who simply identified himself as Promise told The Nation that the RSSD scholarship is a full sponsorship in which the government pays for tuition, accommodation and a living allowance. Also, a return ticket is issued at the end of the programme to enable them to return home to contribute to the development of the state and the nation as a whole.
“Before now, the government paid our fees in advance, so when the issue of late payment started, the school sent an invoice but the government wrote back promising to pay later. So we were allowed to continue with clinical rotations. We were finally stopped three months to our graduation. Two years and four months ago was the last time we got anything from the government. We have written series of letters to the governor, commissioners and the RSSD agency. They keep promising but nothing has been done. Most of us don’t have a place to stay. The current economic situation in Nigeria is not helping matters because when they send you money and you convert it, it won’t be able to buy you anything.
“We are even forced to ask, if things are like this, please send us return ticket. Let us return to Nigeria and start something with our lives. The only person we hear from is the Executive Director of the agency and all he says to us is ‘sooner than later,’ which has not translated to anything in the last two years,” Promise lamented.
A long, winding promise
Although the students have kept in touch with the agency, it had yet to translate to alleviating their plight since promises made have not been fulfilled. Amadi Ugochukwu, a final year medical doctor in the Caribbean, disclosed that himself and other affected students have been in dire straits owing to the terrible living conditions and humiliation they have to bear as a result of nonpayment of their tuition and living allowance by the Rivers State government.
“The situation is not just restricted to RSSDA sponsored students in the Caribbean. Scholars in Canada, UK, Hungary, Russia and other countries where students are stranded also face the same fate as a result of the neglect by the government of Rivers State. We simply plead with them to expedite action on our plight so we can live like saner human beings again.”
Political undertones
Could it be that stranded Rivers State scholars are victims of circumstance used to settle election scores? A statement by another stranded student in Hungary, who also pleaded anonymity, may have confirmed this assertion.
We are a set of students sent by the Rivers State government to study medicine and surgery under the previous administration of Rotimi Amaechi. Everything was on track and our studies were not hindered prior to this 2015 election. Things started changing when the APC lost the election and our present governor was sworn in. The process of governance which is supposed to be a continuum was hampered by the present administration.
“The present governor promised that all those in the final year would be sponsored to finish their programme, while those who do not fall into this category would be brought back to Nigeria to continue. Names were compiled with authorisation from different schools all over the world but to our greatest surprise, from 2015 till this day, making it two years and four months, our fees and upkeep have not been paid for the same time frame. We have been stranded and kept incommunicado. We have even asked for our return ticket but to no avail. This is a case of adoption and abandonment by the Rivers State government. In saner climes, it is a criminal offence but this is Nigeria and anything goes. We are pleading with Governor Wike to come to our aid. As a former minister of state for education, we hope he better understands our plight.
The Executive Director of RSSDA, Mr Larry Pepple, in a phone conversation with The Nation, explained the delay in payment of the final year scholars allowances, saying Rivers State government is not shielded from the challenge of the economy.
“You know that the mainstay of the nation’s economy used to be derived exclusively from oil. So the fall in oil and the spiral of naira nose diving and dollar taking a shot to the heavens is affecting the funding of everything particularly scholarships abroad.
“River State government is trying as much as it can to pay the fees. We have some financial approvals but they have not metamorphosed to physical cash, which we hope and pray it will happen very soon. We are in touch daily with the students and they understand this situation and very soon, not too long from now, this will be over”.
An attempt was made to speak with the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) of Rivers State, Mr Kenneth Kobani, but calls made to his phone were unanswered. The SSG also failed to respond to text messages sent to his phone.
It would be noted that the RSSDA scholarship for Rivers State indigenes commenced in the 2008/2009 academic session with the target to send 300 students overseas annually. One of the reasons why the state put up the scholarship scheme was to curb deprivation in employment opportunities to the Rivers people by multinational companies who source for their manpower from outside the state, on the excuse that the state lacks requisite manpower for the sector within their grasp. The scholarship scheme also hopes to position Rivers youths to play a significant role in the international and global economy through exposure to modern learning in a very conducive atmosphere.
