The uncharitable handling of issues
in Nigeria’s public life has been replicated abroad, and this is no cheering
news. The latest of such dishonourable and blasé conduct is the callous failure
of the Federal Government to pay the allowances of 322 Nigerian students on
scholarship in Russia. The worse thing is that these students were not there on
their own volition. The scholarship is not for all comers but the best brains
in the country.
The kid scholars were awarded scholarships after scoring
distinctions in their secondary school certificate examinations and scaling the
hurdles of competitive examinations before the final awards. The same applies to
most graduate scholars that are pursuing higher degrees in various disciplines
abroad, after bagging distinctions in their first degrees.
These students look forward to a
promising study abroad, and future, subsequently. They are expected to be the
trustees of the nation’s posterity. But with the official laid-back disposition
and near outright abandonment by the Federal Government through non-payment of
their welfare dues, it is becoming apparent that the patriotic zeal of these
brilliant minds is being avoidably killed. We doubt whether any serious country
will toy with the future of her best brains in this manner.
Nigeria signed a Bilateral Education
Agreement Scholarship Awards (BEA) for undergraduate and post-graduate studies
with some countries, including Russia, Cuba, Morocco, Algeria, Romania,
Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Japan, Serbia, Macedonia, China and Mexico. The thrust
of the agreement is that the Federal Government pays for the upkeep of the
students while the country of scholarship award origin pays the tuition.
Russia, as host country of these students, had fulfilled her own part of the
obligation to these Nigerian scholars but her Nigerian counterpart has
shamelessly defaulted.
It is sad that these brilliant
Nigerian students on scholarship in Russia now have to engage in demeaning jobs
to survive. It is unjustifiable that for eight consecutive months since
January, these 322 gifted Nigerians on the BEA initiative in Russia have not
been paid any allowance by the government. Each of the beneficiaries is
entitled to a $500 monthly stipend for feeding and a paltry $450 each as annual
medical/clothing allowance.
How much is this compared with the scandalous
amounts that are reportedly being stolen from the public till by public
officials on a daily basis?
As a matter of fact, these scholars’
stipends pale into insignificance when compared with the huge amount that many
of our public officials spend in maintaining their wards in high profile
schools abroad. Sadly, some of these public officers’ children are not as
brilliant and responsible as those on scholarships, not only in Russia but in
other countries, who are compelled by avoidable circumstances to face hardship.
It is unimaginable that Nigerian scholars beg for food and money from less
endowed citizens of countries like Ghana, Namibia, Uganda and Sierra Leone that
are on the same BEA with them. Does it mean that those countries better
appreciate their citizens than Nigeria?
This irresponsible act that compels
Nigeria’s brilliant young girls and boys in Russia to engage in menial and odd
jobs/lifestyles for survival is a dent on the country’s image. More worrisome
is the report that some of the girls among them now go to clubs and dance
semi-nude for a meagre fee while the boys go for mind-numbing distracting jobs
of clearing of snow, working as labourers on construction sites and at
warehouses despite not having work permit, with the apparent risks of arrest by
the police. Some of them that are due to come for compulsory internship
programmes in Nigeria are reportedly stuck in Russia due to lack of funds to
procure airfare tickets. What a national shame!
We ponder scores of other sponsored
luminous students in foreign universities, at government’s expense, that are
facing similar fate as those that are currently suffering in Russia. Our
verdict: This official dereliction of duty to these students is inhuman and
capable of killing whatever patriotism is in them. Remedial steps must
forthwith be taken not only on the suffering students on scholarship in Russia
but on others across the globe in similar circumstance.
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