mallamseifaldin:
All this SS youths!! Somebody please tell them that the price of crude oil has fallen and Nigeria need to adjust to the current situation we find ourselves.

E99E:




What he intends to achieve with this forum is that he and his fellow mates get their due allowance.

I refuse to agree with you on the points raised as it lacks meaning. Even if his tuition is 25000 pounds whatever left should and must be paid by NDDC...That's why it is called a scholarship


Focus on the real issues and leave sentiments aside.

ActivismForever:
Blame buhari. Since the dullard came to power nothing has been working. I foresee the end of Nigeria.

AnthonyAnderson:
I really don't know how to start this but I pray this medium brings a solution to our problem.

I write on behalf of over 50 students whom are all beneficiaries of the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC) foreign scholarship. In September 2015, we departed for a 12 months Masters programme in the UK. Prior to departure we were informed by NDDC staff that we would pay for visa processing and travel arrangements with our own money with the promise that our allowances would be paid within a month or two on our arrival in the UK. This was shocking to me as I had imagined a commission as big and well funded as the NDDC could easily make necessary arrangements for such just like how PTDF does for its scholars.

I was left with no option but to go begging family and friends to raise the required sum for me to apply for a UK visa, purchase flight tickets and estimated costs for three months accommodation and feeding. I wondered if this was how a foreign scholarship was meant to be. I almost gave up in seeking for assistance but favour smiled on me and I was able to receive donations from family and friends. With the money raised I purchased all I needed and traveled. NDDC had promised to send our allowances by the end of October. On arrival at school I realized that the accommodation was more than I had budgeted for and so could not afford it. Fortunately I had a friend that stayed in the next city and had to put up with him for the time being pending when I would secure an accommodation on receipt of my allowance. Fast forward to last week in November, NDDC officials in their numbers visited us (They surely spent more than half our entire allowance on their trip) promising we would now receive our allowances before the year runs out. Now in the second week of January 2016 we are yet to receive any allowance from NDDC or even assurance of when we will be paid. This is five months into a 12 month programme and not a dime has been sent to us. It might be surprising to note that the same NDDC has paid tuition fees to the schools since they know that the schools will not accept us without tuition fees which is far higher than the allowances we are supposed to receive but for some funny reasons they have refused to send a dime for upkeep(accommodation and feeding). Most of us have tried contacting the officials in the scholarship department of NDDC and all we receive are rude responses giving us the impression we are begging for alms. Particularly one Mrs Sotonye, who is always so rude on the phone whenever she chooses to answer calls to her phone and would never reply text messages sent to her.

My question is how do you send students abroad without giving them a dime for over 5 months? If there is no money for the scholarship why then send people out in the first instance? But surely this is not the case as tuition fees had already been paid. The idea of the scholarship is to relieve our parents of the financial burden of furthering our education because we are mostly not from wealthy homes. We have been forced to finds jobs even though these jobs cannot pay for our monthly house rent. The NDDC is not broke as to to say they cannot afford to send us our allowances. It is sad to see corruption has killed every conscience in people as can be exemplified by NDDC officials in charge of the scholarship whom I wonder if they would love their children to be treated as such.

With the recent ban by the CBN on the use of naira cards you can only imagine our plights as even our parents are helpless towards our situation. It is our hope the president GMB and the new acting chairman of the NDDC Mrs. Ibim Seminitari will quickly come to our aid.

It is our prayers that the bad eggs in the NNDC whom have continually denied us our monthly allowances for months now will be investigated and prosecuted so that future beneficiaries of the scholarship wont be allowed to go through the torture we are currently going through. Sometimes I feel regret... I feel regret because how do I bring out the best in me when i have to constantly remind myself that my next day food is not guaranteed coupled with the load of course work I have to battle at night after school.

It is sad to see that the NDDC has truly failed. One cannot only but imagine that maybe allowances meant for us have been diverted for personal gains.

SSGUniport:
You obviously didn't read what I wrote.

Don't get me wrong, i don't support any corruption in NDDC, but the OP Should be truthful. I have friends who are benefiting from this scheme, and have since been paid.

All scholarship schemes have "terms" and "conditions" attached to them.

Before you accept such award, you are made to read them and if you accept these terms, you append your signature.

The OP made reference to PTDF, and it would you interest you to know PTDF takes care of everything because it is outrightly stated in the award letter.

You raised the issue of £25,000, can I ask you this simple question, if NDDC budgets £19,000 per scholar and you read it on your award letter, and still went ahead to sign, where do you expect NDDC to get the balance from?

janellemonae:


And d bigoted South Easterner pretending to be a Northerner rears his head again.

ActivismForever:
Blame buhari. Since the dullard came to power nothing has been working. I foresee the end of Nigeria.

Mom007:
You guys are not serious. People are praying for the opportunity you have and you are there complaining about not getting feeding allowance. If you indeed value the opportunity you have been given, you will look for part time Jobs and face the school and come out with good results so that your time there won't be a total waste. As for the crooked NDDC guys that have obviously pocketed the allowance, well done o, EFCC will soon Com visiting.

glaber:
Yhu have all gone to Ajo Aremabo,
When did NSCDC start giving scholarship

AnthonyAnderson:
Thanks to All for your encouraging comments.

Thanks to the MODs for bringing this to front page..I just got back from classes today and seeing this on front page has brought some joy to me...We will hang in there.

For those that have said why don't we get jobs..
The UK is becoming different now.We have tried and we are still trying to get jobs.

Also we are in schools duly certified by NDDC else we won't be here.

Thanks once again

AnthonyAnderson:
Thanks to All for your encouraging comments.

Thanks to the MODs for bringing this to front page..I just got back from classes today and seeing this on front page has brought some joy to me...We will hang in there.

For those that have said why don't we get jobs..
The UK is becoming different now.We have tried and we are still trying to get jobs.

Also we are in schools duly certified by NDDC else we won't be here.

Thanks once again

AntiIPOB:
You must have attended the famous LGEA before proceeding to community secondary school,so it is only yorubas that can identify Igbos in the crowd?

FabioPeter:
It's difficult to understand why successive government "invest" heavily on foreign scholarship.
The staggering amount NDDC and state government have ploughed into this would have gone a long way in reviving our failing education sector.
The end result is a brain drain to our nation and an entrapment for the "beneficiaries" who hardly get a decent job abroad.

Toeyoursea:
My brother i really feel your pain, may God comfort you and my other country men in this quagmire.

---

The abysmal arrangement of the scholarship is what you are suffering. A sane government interested in such a scheme will have paid securities in terms of bank overdrafts etc. in advance especially when we had enough to do that ($120 per barrel).

I hope this message gets to the right quarters and saves you from this pitiable condition.
All is well, the lord is your strength .

Flets:
Everyone must feel this change. Ranging from market women, businessmen, white collar job workers, service entities, hustlers, entrepreneurs, students to even politicians. ....... such that the next time you are approached with propaganda, you go for the jugular.

OP .... the acting NDDC chairman is Amaechi's former commissioner of propaganda. For now they are recouping the stolen election funds spent on Buhari's campaign.

We'll join you in screaming. ... maybe they might have a rethink but the APC govt I know lacks sympathy.

Flets:
Everyone must feel this change. Ranging from market women, businessmen, white collar job workers, service entities, hustlers, entrepreneurs, students to even politicians. ....... such that the next time you are approached with propaganda, you go for the jugular.

OP .... the acting NDDC chairman is Amaechi's former commissioner of propaganda. For now they are recouping the stolen election funds spent on Buhari's campaign.

We'll join you in screaming. ... maybe they might have a rethink but the APC govt I know lacks sympathy.

ariesbull:
L

I know that you are a yoruba from the way you reasoned

Don't deny your tribe

bakynes:

She is right it is you who shd shut up. A family member also sponsored me to the UK for masters and only paid my tuition fee partly. When I got there I hustled my way out to pay the remaining, paid for accommodation, feeding, my project work, cloth myself and purchase return ticket back to Nigeria. I was even on full time study finished with a Merit Award and I was able to hustle my way out. Not that am supporting what the officials of the NDDC did but alot of people will kill to have this opportunity they have to study abroad. There are so many things to do over there to support yourself unlike Nigeria where to get jobs to keep body and soul is difficult.

Mom007:
You guys are not serious. People are praying for the opportunity you have and you are there complaining about not getting feeding allowance. If you indeed value the opportunity you have been given, you will look for part time Jobs and face the school and come out with good results so that your time there won't be a total waste. As for the crooked NDDC guys that have obviously pocketed the allowance, well done o, EFCC will soon Com visiting.

AntiIPOB:
Good morning okeke,how is kanu?

Mom007:
You guys are not serious. People are praying for the opportunity you have and you are there complaining about not getting feeding allowance. If you indeed value the opportunity you have been given, you will look for part time Jobs and face the school and come out with good results so that your time there won't be a total waste. As for the crooked NDDC guys that have obviously pocketed the allowance, well done o, EFCC will soon Com visiting.