₦airaland Forum

Maximillian1:
Eze nnunu

Students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, are currently in battle with the authorities of their school over what they termed the compulsory laptop fee allegedly imposed on new students by the management of the school.

The students said the fee was high and that it would deny many of the freshmen the opportunity of studying in the varsity.

It was learnt that the institution collected N25, 000 as acceptance fee and N60, 000 as school fees from the new intakes, while N10, 000 and N11, 000 were respectively demanded for accommodation in the male and female hostels.

With the addition of N70, 000 as laptop fee, the students are mandated to pay between a total of N165, 000 and N171, 000.

Both new and old students of the varsity have taken their anger to the social media, accusing the school management of insensitivity. They also accused the Students Union Government of complicity in the matter because they alleged the SUG had refused to speak in defence of the students.

A female student, Chinwe, said on her Facebook wall that her family could not afford the fee.

She wrote, “I am so confused right now. My family can’t afford that laptop for now, whereas we have Window 7 HP laptop at home. UNN is a federal school, not a state or private university for God’s sake. The school fee is expensive unlike UNILAG, UNIBEN, UNILORIN, OAU and other federal universities in the South West that are very cheap. Yet, UNN is enforcing laptop on students; this is injustice!”

Another student, who identified himself as Ogwu, said the laptop fee should not be made compulsory.

“But come to think of it, what is the relevance of this fake laptop to an agricultural student? So it must not be compulsory,” he said.

A former student of the school, who host a Facebook page, UNN Voice Via Rymzo, wrote an open letter to the management of the institution, asking it to rescind the decision.

Rymzo, in an address to the Vice Chancellor of the school and the SUG, questioned the rationale for the imposed laptop fee.

He said, “These poor freshmen you have asked to pay for laptop before they do their clearance or apply for hostel, if you were a poor man and such a thing was done to you, would you be happy? Did you tell them about this before they chose UNN?

“Why are you denying some people from actualising their dreams in UNN? I want you to know that you are destroying destinies, delaying dreams, frustrating lives and encouraging crime indirectly.”

“To the SUG, UNN added money to the Internet fee you didn’t do anything about it. Light and water supply are not always steady inside the campus, you keep quiet.

“Now the freshmen whom you are supposed to protect and fight for their welfare are confused and passing through emotional trauma because they are helpless and have no one to speak for them over this laptop saga, you still keep quiet.”

But the spokesperson for the SUG, Ilogebe Chidi, in a reaction, which was broadcast to students of the institution, denied complicity in the case.

Chidi said, “The SUG has got a great task on her shoulders. But then, our primary duty is to protect the right of our constituency, and that we are doing. The issue of compulsory laptops for first year students…it’s quite unfortunate that some persons are still insensitive to the current situation of our economy. The SUG dissociates itself from the policy of compulsory purchase of laptops by first year students.

“We are fully aware that the University of Nigeria is the last hope of the common man in the South East with respect to the pursuit of sound and affordable education. We wish to let you know that the SUG isn’t sleeping on this issue as we have devised measures of handling this problem headlong.

“The N70, 000 is too outrageous and the payment by instalments is cut- throat. We fully understand that the school management wants to upgrade the schooling system but it is very unwise to create a bigger problem trying to solve a smaller one.”

He added that the union was planning a meeting with the school management to discuss the matter.

The Public Relations Officer of the school, Okwun Omeaku, when contacted on the telephone, said he was driving and might not be able to react to the story.

“I am driving and will still be on the express for the next two hours and cannot react now,” he said.

5 minutes ago Details

Good day,

First of all I want to thank you for considering my proposal. One aspect I will like to talk about is PARTNERSHIP. I strongly believe in the power and spirit of Partnership in business. Partnership, it is all about mutual understanding, mutual efforts /contribution and mutual benefits for all parties involved in the partnership. On this note, I would want us to work as a team in pursuit of this interest with utmost professionalism, transparency, commitment and confidentiality.

The first thing I will do is to get you acquainted with the complete details (a general overview) of this transaction so as to give you a foundation on which to make a concrete decision. I actually got your email contact from a friend of mine who works at the Chambers of Commerce here in the Hong Kong, I went to him with the zeal of locating a possible business partner overseas who will assist me in this project but note that I did not specify the nature of this business to him due to the nature of the business.

I contacted you concerning a deceased customer Ishmael Abdullah Naqshbandi (An Iraqi Crude oil merchant), and an investment he placed under our banks management. Once again I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail. I am contacting on you independently and no one is informed of this communication I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you.

In January 2001, Ishmael Abdullah Naqshbandi came to our bank to engage in business discussions with our private banking division. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of 18.3 million United States dollars, which he wished to have us turn over (invest) on his behalf. I was the officer assigned to his case because of his high net worth profile; I made numerous suggestions in line with my duties as the de-facto Head, Foreign Operation Dept of the private banking sector, especially given the volume of funds he wished to put into our bank. We met on numerous occasions prior to any investments being placed. I encouraged him to consider various growth funds with prime ratings. The favoured route in my advice to customers is to start by assessing data on 600 traditional stocks and bond managers and 300 managers of alternative investments. Based on my advice, we spun the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our first months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this point at 22.5 million United States dollars, this margin was not the full potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments.

Upon maturity several notice was sent to him, even during the war (U.S and Iraqi war), Twelve years ago (2003). Again after the war another notification was sent and still no response came from him. I immediately passed the task of locating him to the internal investigations department of Dah Sing Bank Ltd. Information started to trickle in that Ishmael Abdullah Naqshbandi and his family had been killed during the war in a bomb blast that hit his home at Basrajra Samarra where his personal oil well was. The bank immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and also to come forward to claim his estate. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of detachment from conventional processes.

In his bio-data form, he listed no next of kin. In the field of private banking, opening an account with us means no one will know of its existence. Accounts are rarely held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This bank even gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no traces of the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases leave wills in our care, in this case; our now deceased client died in-testate. In line with our internal processes for account holders who have passed away, we instituted our own investigations in good faith to determine who should have right to claim the estate. This investigation has for the past months been unfruitful. We have scanned every continent and used our private investigation affiliate companies to get to the root of the problem. It is quite clear now that our dear client died with no known or identifiable family member.

This leaves me as the only person with the full picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to the portfolio and the late beneficiary of the deposit. According to practice, the Private banking sector will by the end of this year broadcast a request for statement of claim to Dah Sing Bank Ltd, failing to receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit to Management of Dah Sing Bank Ltd. This will result in the money entering the Dah Sing accounting system and the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the private banking division. What bothers me most is that according to the laws of my country at the expiration of Twelve {12} years the funds will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government if nobody applies to claim the funds. This will not happen if I have my way.

What I wish to relate to you will smack off unethical practice but I want you to understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking world who finds the internal politics of the banking world aberrational. The world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those who sit upon certain chairs and oversee certain portfolios. You should have begun by now to put together the general direction of what I propose. There is US $22,500,000.00 deposit just lying unclaimed. This bank has spent great amounts of money trying to track the deceased's family; they have investigated for several months and have found no identifiable family member. The investigation has come to an end.

My proposal; I am prepared to furnish the necessary details to you as the closest surviving relation. I am also proposing that after successful execution of the business deal and the money in your account, the funds be disbursed in the ratio 40/60; 40% of the funds will go to you for offering yourself as the next of kin and providing a foreign account especially an offshore account for safe transfer of the funds and 60% will be for me. Please let me know in your next correspondence if the above sharing ratio is okay by you because we can fine-tune this based on our interactions incase you have any problem with it. Following the master plan for this deal I am looking at a bank that have transaction understanding with my bank as first point of transfer to put off eyebrows that may be raised or to avoid unnecessary questioning.

I am aware of the consequences of this proposal. Once more, I ask that if you find no interest in this project that you should discard this mail and forget I ever contacted you, I ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive. Do not destroy my career because you do not approve of my proposal. I am not a criminal and what I do, I do not find against good conscience, this may be hard for you to understand, but the dynamics of my industry dictates that I make this move. Such opportunities only come one's way once in a lifetime. I cannot let this chance pass me by. For once I find myself in total control of my destiny. This chance won't pass me by and please do not let me miss my chance, if you will not work with me let me know and let me move on with my life. I am a family man and this is an opportunity to provide them with new opportunities. I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is from you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. If you give me positive signals, I will give you the relevant modus operandi to initiate this process towards a conclusion.

I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This is the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients. Do not betray my confidence. I await your response.

Sincerely,

Diamondqueen:
So I know you'll tell me school first and face your books. Yes, I know all that. I'll be 17 in two months. I'm intelligent and i do very well in school. Most of you guys have passed through my stage and I hope you understand that this is the stage where you start having feelings for the opposite sex. So I hope this doesn't sound like I'm a bad girl or something like that. I don't want you to say things like "what is this generation turning into?" because I'm very sure it happened in the previous generation and there are evidences such as the single mums that i see that got pregnant then. Long story short, there is a boy i like and he likes me too and he just asked me out. I made it very clear to him that we are not going to get intimate and he is very okay with it. I know you'll say it can happen by accident but i know that the only place we can get intimate is at a lonely place so all I'll have to do is to avoid it. The thing now is that do you think getting into a relationship at 16 is quite okay. Mind you, I'll soon be 17.