A group of Nigerian students pursuing higher academic programmes abroad have raised the alarm over an alleged omission of their names on the list of beneficiaries of a Federal Government bailout, implemented by TETFund, contrary to President Bola Tinubu’s directive.
The group of students, under the aegis of ” Omitted TETFund Foreign Scholars”, in a statement, signed by the duo of Kamal Odunjo- Saka, Chairman, and, Dr Bassey Essein, Secretary, and made available to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday, alleged that over 45% of them were affected.
They claimed to have written SOS letters, since 17th May, 2024, to several authorities, including the Presidency, the Senate, House of Representatives , Ministry of Education, and tetfund, among others, but regretted that their efforts were yet to yield any positive responses.
They therefore appealed to President Bola Tinubu to help them intervene in the situation, by prevailing on TETFund to do the needful, in line with his earlier directive on the subject matter.
“It is recalled that the president, out of kindness, promised to support all foreign Nigerian scholars, affected by the exchange rate, and consequently directed TETFund to take charge.
” But as we speak, 45 percent of Nigerian scholars, currently on the sponsorship of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) abroad have been omitted in the disbursement of the funds, allocated for the purpose., whereas, it was claimed by TETFund that it had spent N3.8billion to bailout stranded Nigerian scholars overseas, due to the snowballing exchange rate against the Naira.
” It would also be recalled that the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono himself, had in May, declared that the fund, spent N3.8billion to bailout Nigerian scholars, who had sought for the Federal Government’s intervention”, the statement said.
It explained that that the bailout was for 1,500 Nigerian scholars, who had been abroad since 2017 till date.
One of the SOS letters reads in part: ” We are writing on behalf of all the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) sponsored foreign scholars, who were omitted from the payment of the recently approved Presidential Bailout to all TETFund foreign scholars within the year 2018 – 2023.
” Initially, the bailout was designed as a measure to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Naira devaluation/exchange rate, and particularly, inflation in the cost of living on scholars, hence the reason for the timeframe under review (2018 – 2023), considering that scholars within this period are grossly affected.
” TETFund has been a cornerstone in supporting higher education in Nigeria, providing essential financial aid for infrastructure, research, and academic staff development”.
It continued, saying” We sincerely appreciate the generous bailout, approved by Mr President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as this would alleviate the burden on Scholars. However, our confidence in the fair implementation of the disbursement has been severed.
” Currently, about 45 percent of the TETFund sponsored foreign scholars were omitted in the disbursement of the presidential-approved bailout by TETFund, thereby, subjecting scholars to harsh conditions, amidst the current economic realities.
” While we tried to engage TETFund to ensure fairness in the disbursement, scholars were told that some are not qualified, based on programme status, while our recent request for engagement was turned down by the Fund.
” Meanwhile, both scholars on their programme, and those recently completed were unjustly omitted without any tangible justification provided.
” Initially, there were no segregation of scholars or any discrepancies during the agreement of conditions for bailout.
” Also, both ongoing and completed Scholars were paid during the first and second tranches of the disbursed bailout, paid between January to March 2024.
” This includes scholars across Europe, Asia, America and other part of the globe, while TETFund refused to pay fellow scholars in the same categories, with no concrete justification”.
