₦airaland Forum

[quote author=demoBaba post=76861030]The first man with sense on this post. I was already loosing hope on the second page of this thread as I found not one person with comprehension abilities on the first page of this post.

It is really unfortunate that most persons that come to post on NL have no proper sense of reasoning.

Demmzy15:
Now it is confirmed and certified that PDP and its supporters are mad, can you imagine?! Amaechi should resign? The most performing minister should resign? The question we keep asking PDP and its CAN of worms is show us railway, power and road projects started and completed by the PDP throughout their 16 years of doom. Just show us, that's not too much to ask.

And Bubu, in case you don't win the 2019 elections, I'm giving you a freehand to rig your way. Baba do it, we're solidly behind you, if PDP wins, we would never forgive you for taking us back to Egypt.

We Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, Nupe, Ebira, Igala, Ikweere, etc Muslims are solidly behind you.

Thank you my brother. You have spoken well.

True Christians listen. God's blessings does not depend on you paying tithes. God bless Daddy Freeze..... God bless the Catholic Church.

Finally South Africa gets it right.....A push for performance and economic growth has led to Zuma resigning...

Same cant be said of my beloved Nigeria.... Nepotism and Endemic corruption rules the day and the Nigerian Senate can only fight for nothing..... only nothing but their allowances. May we never live to see another civil war.

Almost two months ago, I posted our plight (https://www.nairaland.com/2873734/plea-help...nddc-left-us-hopeless) here on Nairaland..I was grateful to see MODs move it to the front page.

Today we received this mail from the school administration on NDDCs reply after the school had assisted in writing severally to NDDC. I decided to share with all so we can learn. As I write to you some students have stopped going to classes since last month. Living is hell. Coupled with the extreme cold weather now. The advice given in my previous posts were shared with all students and many thanks to everyone that contributed. However it has been very difficult getting jobs..Any kind of jobs as the requirements have now been revised all in a bid to discourage us from applying.

See the mail below....

Dear all

Regrettably, we have received some bad news from NDDC regarding the payments of both your living expenses and course fees.

We received an e-mail Friday afternoon from Godson, copying in both Victor Seigha and Eddie Gordons Okoye, confirming that although they advised us that payments would be made on or by the 4th March that the management have now decided that the tuition and living fees for all students, both September 2015 and January 2016, will now be paid together rather than in batches which has been the case previously so the payments have been delayed once again.

The reason stated is that the NDDC audit department will now be looking through all of the documents and payments will only be made once the audit process has been completed in full. They have also not been able to give an exact date on when the payments will be made but they have confirmed that they will be paid “as soon as possible”. I appreciate that this is not the news that you wanted to hear and I know that this now puts a lot of you in difficult financial situations.

Firstly, in terms of your course fees, a decision has been made that none of the NDDC students will be blocked due to non-payment of the course fees so please do not worry on this side of things and if you do receive any notification from Finance that you have been blocked then please contact me directly and I will ensure that the block is removed, however, I do need to inform you that you will not be allowed to Graduate until your course fees are paid in full. I appreciate that this is still some months away and we would expect payment from NDDC well in advance of this but I need to ensure that you are fully aware of the situation from the outset.

In terms of your living expenses I am afraid there is only limited support that the University can provide to you and you will now need to seriously consider your financial situations and make a decision on whether you will be able to support yourselves through the remainder of your course without the support of NDDC. I am afraid if the answer is no then it may be the case that you will need to return home as we have no guarantee from NDDC on exactly when the payments will be made.

I can only apologise again that NDDC have not fulfilled their sponsorship terms and would like to reiterate that our students welfare is our paramount concern. I would encourage you all to contact NDDC directly to explain your situations and try to put pressure on them to make the payments as soon as possible and please be assured that we are doing the same.

I completely understand that this e-mail is not the news that you (or we) wanted to hear and as such I have booked meeting room SC109 (upstairs in the Student Centre) for tomorrow Tuesday 8th March between 14:00 – 15:00 p.m. if you would like to come and discuss this further.


Kind regards

Adam O'Flynn

Sponsor Recruitment and Admissions Manager


Lalasticlala, Fynestboi, Olawalebabs, please help move to front page. Many thanks as always.

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

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.