Rivers Overseas Students Decry Govt’s Neglect, Unpaid Allowances

The foreign students on Rivers State Government’s scholarship through the RSSDA Scholarship Scheme have accused the state government of neglecting them, saying that their allowances have not been paid for the past five months.

The students, particularly those in the United Kingdom, said most of them, especially those from very poor backgrounds, have been evicted from their residential apartments due to their inability to pay up their rents as and when due or clear the backlog, and have resorted to squatting and gallivanting the streets of London, Manchester, Glasgow, Hull, Sunderland, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Oxford, among others in frustration.

The students told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that many others stand the risk of eviction, adding that this is not the first time the Rivers State Government has failed in its obligations to its foreign scholars. “And this is not the first time our allowances are been owed (held) for more than five months. It is a shame that we have had to in the past, forced our families back home to send us feeding money, and the pains they go through in sending this money are unbearable. In the past, children of indigent parents have had to drop out due to their inability to cope with their studies.”

Some of the students have reportedly been forced by the unfortunate situation to take up menial jobs to cope with survival “and it is not clear what the state of their studies is because they have to shuttle between their workplace and the university.

“No Rivers child deserves to go through life this way and certainly not in a foreign land. Please we appeal to the Rivers State Government to release funds to the RSSDA to enable it meet its obligations to students on foreign scholarship.”