19 Rivers State students return from the UK as the government fails to pay their school fees

ABOUT 19 beneficiaries of the Rivers State Overseas Scholarship Scheme have returned home from the United Kingdom without completing their programme because the government has failed to pay their school fees.

 

More than any other state in Nigeria, Rivers State has thousands of pupils studying internationally as former governor Rotimi Amaechi used scholarships as a major plank of his education policy. Every year, his administration sent about 300 students to the UK and Canada on scholarship but with the change of government, it appears that the programme is now under threat. 

 

Governor Nyesom Wike took over as Rivers State governor on May 29 and it appears that like Governor Amaechi before him, he has also failed to remit the fees. As a result, several of the Rivers State students in various universities in the UK faced deportation as they were unable to resume their academic pursuits and subsequently their visas.

 

Some of the students have now returned to Nigeria to avoid deportation after the expiration of the deadline for the payment of their school fees and accommodation allowances. Kingsley Uranta of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) said that Governor Nyesom Wike, had released some funds to offset the amount owed by the students but the money did not reach the students before the expiration of the deadline for the payment of their tuition fees.

 

According to the RSSDA, the registration of the 19 students from the universities of Huddersfield, Brighton and Nottingham Trent had been deferred until 2016. Mr Uranta explained that the agency had confirmed from the aforementioned universities that the students could return to the institutions next year.

 

Mr Uranta added: “The governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, recently released some funds to pay tuition fees, upkeep and accommodation allowances for some of our students and their universities. However, for the UK in particular, the deadline for the payment elapsed before the fees could get to them.

 

As a result, the registration of 19 students for 2015/16 in the universities of Huddersfield (11), Brighton (3) and Nottingham Trent (5) have been deferred to 2016. Sadly, the 19 students who have now left the UK to avoid infringing on their immigration status and be deported are expected to arrive in Nigeria today, Thursday October 22, 2015."

 

Earlier this year, several if the students had protested outside the Nigerian high commission in the UK demanding that the mission come to their aid. They were received by the acting Nigerian high commissioner to the UK, Ambassador Olukunle Bamgbose, who wrote to the Rivers State government that it expedite action  on the school fee payment.