By Samuel Mbakwe,Moscow, Russia
Some Nigerian students studying in the Russian Federation under the Federal Ministry of Education’s Bilateral Education Program (BEA) on Wednesday staged a peaceful protest at the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow. The students under the auspices of the Association of Nigerian Scholarship Students in Russia (ANSSIR) were protesting the nonpayment of their stipends for the past 8months.
In a related development, last week, scholarship students sent to Russia by the Bayelsa State Government also protested the nonpayment of their 14 months stipends and tuition by the state Government.
The President of ANSSIR, Comrade Ike David Ikenna, who led the peaceful demonstration stated that they decided to stage a peaceful demonstration to disrupt the normal operations of the embassy so as to get word out that they have not been paid their allowances for 8 months. This became inevitable as all avenues to peacefully demand their allowances from the Federal Scholarship Board Abuja have failed.
The students warned, while carrying placards : “If something is not urgently done to help our situation, Nigerians should expect to see screaming headlines like Russian Government deports Nigerian Scholarship Students for begging for alms on the streets of Russia; Russia set to deport Nigerian scholarship students for working without work permits; Nigerian students starve to death in Russia; Female Nigerian students prostitute for food in Russia.”
The BEA scheme is a joint program run by the Nigerian government (through the Federal Ministry of Education) in collaboration with governments of other countries such as Russia, China, Cuba, Morocco, Algeria, Ukraine, etc. Under the scheme, outstanding students from all the states of the federation are nominated by the Nigerian government to the foreign governments. The receiving-country then places the scholars in universities and pays their tuition while the Nigerian government pays for students’ visas, flight, and a monthly allowance of US$500.
Some of the interviewed students stressed the fact that having not received a single cent in the last 8 months from the government that sent them abroad, they are really worried about their abilities to keep on surviving on alms given by students from other countries such as Ghana, Botswana, Cameroon and many others.
They also lamented the fact that the average cost of living in most Russian cities is about US$750 monthly; in cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow, it gets as high as US$1,000. This means that the US$500 the FSB is supposed to pay them is grossly inadequate. That notwithstanding, the US$500 is never paid regularly . The earliest they have received their stipends in the last four years is six months late. The excuse usually given is that the budget has not been passed. Some placards read the following: Does it take seven months to pass the budget every year?; What about the supplementary budget?; Why can’t provisions be made for our stipends in the supplementary budget?; Why can’t our stipends be paid monthly like Nigerian workers.
The protesting students were also particular to state that more worrisome is the fact that that their yearly student visa expires very soon. To renew it, they need a US$40 renewal fee. Failure to renew it 20 days before expiry could lead to deportation. They are pleading with the federal government to speedily come to their rescue.
