Owed over 12 months’ allowances, hundreds of Nigerian students on federal government scholarship in Morocco have cried out for help.

They say many of them now go cap in hand, begging to survive.

Some of the students, who are ashamed of begging on the streets, have taken to social media to beg their host communities for assistance.

The students, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES from Morocco, said they were sent to study abroad under the Bilateral Education Agreement of the Federal Scholarship Board (FSB) programme, a parastatal of the federal ministry of education.

The scholarship is awarded to different cadres of students (undergraduate and postgraduate) who are sent to countries which Nigeria has such bilateral agreement with.

Under the bilateral agreement, the host countries take care of the students’ tuitions and accommodation, while the government of the mother country (in this case Nigeria) takes full charge of the students living allowances, which is to be paid monthly.

The countries involved in such educational understanding with Nigeria include Russia, Morocco, Algeria, Serbia, Hungary, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Cuba, Romania, Ukraine, Japan, Macedonia; Mexico, and South Korea.

The candidates’ tuition is fully subsidised to study in various fields like Engineering, Geology, Agriculture, Sciences, Mathematics, Languages, Environmental Sciences, Sports, Law, Social Sciences, Biotechnology, Architecture, Pharmacy, Medicine among others.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the minimum monthly allowance for an undergraduate is $500; which also goes with an annual bursary of $450, to take care of their medical, clothing for warming and winter period.

Those studying medicine get an extra $500 annually.

But despite this clear arrangement, the students say the Nigerian government has not only defaulted on its part of the agreement but also made their lives very difficult.

“Unfortunately the Federal Government of Nigeria has failed to keep its own part of the agreement and this is affecting both our wellbeing and our academics,” said one of the students who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES on condition of anonymity, for fear of victimisation.

“Today as it stands, we are owed $6,450, which is for the 12 months of unpaid allowances plus other allowances from 2018; and another $3,000, which is for six months of allowances owed us from 2017 stipends; and $1,500 which represents the three months allowances government owed us in 2016.”

The aggrieved students in Morocco said the Nigerian government is currently owing each student a total of $10,950 for undergraduates; $11,950 for Ph.D Students, who get an additional entitled $1000 yearly as research grants; $11,450 for each Medical and Masters students, who are also entitled to an additional $500 as research grants.

The students said for the past three years, the FSB has not been very transparent in how it handles the payment of their allowances, especially when they would open payment for a fresh year without offsetting backlogs of owed stipends from previous years.

The students informed PREMIUM TIMES that the amount owed them would have been more than what is accrued now, had some Nigerian students enjoying similar scholarship in another country not taken a protest to the Nigerian embassy when Senate President Bukola Saraki visited Moscow last year.

“Thanks to the Senate president, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who, after the protest from the (students in Russia last year, summoned the FSB director to ensure the payment of part of the stipends last year, in November,” the student said.

“Since then, we are yet to receive any dime from the scholarship board. That has rendered most of us homeless, starving and living on excessive debts, to survive.

“We want the federal government to know that our parents can’t afford to send us money from home all the time, especially with the current exchange rate and been that living abroad demands a lot of support.

“This situation is really affecting our academic activities and even our well-being as many who are sick or having one problem or the other especially the women looking at their vulnerability, have no means of taking care of their problems.”

The students said they had made several entreaties to the FSB recently but were only given verbal assurances that the board will try to pay only three (3) months of all that is owed them this year (2018), without any further word on when the remaining months of 2018 and other backlogs of 2016 and 2017 would be paid.

“The three months they promised to pay out of 2018 will not help or solve our problems as we will have to settle the debt we took from one source or the other to survive the whole year circle of no pay by the board,” the students lament.

The students say the high cost of living in Morocco, compared to Nigeria, makes things more difficult for them.

The students have to go outside the campuses to search for alternative accommodations because the partner countries, in the bilateral agreement, who are supposed to take care of tuition and accommodation, only provide a space for 10 to 15 persons per room; and only during the first year, which is called the language year.

After that, students are left on their own to sort out their accommodation needs.

“To rent a single room in an apartment will cost you nothing less than a $120 a month and this goes without the water and light bill,” a student said.

“As it is now, some of our colleagues have been issued notice by their landlord to leave their house due to lack of payment and they have nowhere to go. Some are being threatened that they will be taken to the police station or even to court because they have not paid the landlords for 12 months.

“How about our transportation, feeding, clothing, buying of hand-outs in school and other school materials needed by, especially of medicine, dentistry and architecture students?”

FSB blames the budget

The students said the FSB’s constant narrative for the excuse of not paying their allowances is non-passage or implementation of budgets.

“We don’t even know what the problem is. We were told that our money is in the budget and that we will get our money immediately the budget is passed but it’s always not the case since the budget was passed since June and till date we are yet to receive a kobo,” a student said.

“Last year the Senate president asked the former director of the board (in a meeting they held together with the Senate committee on education) to capture all the outstanding debts or the students and give a total sum of the money needed to settle the students, so it can be captured in the budget, as well as to find an everlasting solution to this problem.

“But as it is now, nothing is released to us and all we hear is there is no money. With the lack of money, we receive more students every year, (coming to join) the chain of sufferings and begging to survive.