A group of Nigerian students under the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) (2015) Foreign postgraduate scheme have cried out that they have been abandoned by the government.

The students who are schooling in various in the United States, Canada, Russia, France and several other countries across the world complained that the government has reneged on the promise of paying them the agreed financial support.

The students who contacted WuzupNaija recently said some scholars have rounded up their Masters program without payment of the upkeep from NDDC, while others have been paid only once for a 3-year program.
“We have been abandoned for a minimum of 12 months (19 for some scholars),” a representative of the group, Ejike H. A. Nwafor wrote in an email sent to our correspondent.

“The Managing Director of NDDC, Mr. Nsima Ekere and his finance team headed by Mr. Mene Derek has been playing politics with the entire situation. It’s been one lies or the other. People have had to borrow to sustain themselves hoping our sponsors will act responsibly to no avail.
“No explanation whatsoever has been given; when you call the office, you get pre-programmed answers like “We’re on it”.”

The students said they tried to reach the Honourable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Uguru Usani, via Twitter after several unacknowledged letters.
The Minister replied, after the tweet, that he received the letter but nothing has been done till now.

The students said that instead of settling the 2015 backlogs, the commission is adding more candidates to the program, setting them up for more woes like is currently happening.

“They have 2016 Scholars and Interviews have just been concluded for 2017 scholars, we do not believe the money hasn’t been allotted for this purpose. We want Nigerians to know what we are going through,” the students added.

The students shared correspondence to prove that their agitation was real.
See some of the correspondence below.