President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to pay the tuition fees and stipends of students under the commission’s scholarship scheme who are now stranded abroad.
According to a statement signed by the NDDC Director, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Charles Odili, President Buhari conveyed the directive to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, following the protest of the students.
The students have continued to protest at the Nigerian High Commission in the UK over their abandonment by the NDDC, currently rattled by the ongoing probe of its past fraudulent spendings.
Odili said the students would be paid by the end of the week explaining that the delay was caused by the sudden death of Chief Ibanga Etang, the then Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, EDFA, of the Commission in May.
Odili said: “Under the Commission’s finance protocol, only the Executive Director (Finance) and the Executive Director (Projects) can sign for the release of funds from the Commission’s domiciliary accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
“With the death of Chief Etang, the remittance has to await the appointment of a new EDFA.
“Senator Akpabio, the Honourable Minister, said President Buhari who has been briefed on the protest by students at the Nigerian High Commission in London, has ordered that all stops be pulled to pay the students by the end of this week. We expect a new EDFA to be appointed this week. As soon as that is done, they would all be paid.”
Meanwhile, the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide has warned that further delay in the payment of the students fees could spark outrage in the region.
President of IYC, Peter Igbifa, who spoke in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Tuesday, said the sufferings of the students abroad is unacceptable.
He lamented that despite the huge resources that have been allocated for the students scholarship programme, they have been forced to become beggars with forlorn hope as funds are being spent on frivolities.
“I watched the recent protest by the scholars and I was moved into tears. It is embarrassing, shameful and unacceptable to see our ambassadors abandoned and neglected by the NDDC and the Federal Government.
“Since my emergence as the 8th President of the IYC, this is one major issue that has been threatning the fragile peace and causing tension in the region.
“I have had to hold several meetings to calm down frayed nerves, who wanted to start fresh violent agitation over the suffering of our kinsmen sent abroad to study by NDDC.
“There is a limit to which I can hold them back. If something drastic and urgent is not done to settle the financial obligations of these scholars, I am afraid, the temper will boil over and anything can happen,” Igbifa said.
He added that: “This is not the time to shift blames. The youths in the region are already angry and they don’t want to listen to any blame games.
“They don’t want the Federal Government to blame the NDDC and they don’t want the NDDC to blame the National Assembly or the coronavirus pandemic. What they are expecting is an end to this shame.”
