₦airaland Forum

At least 13,423 Nigerian students currently studying in the U.S. contributed 514 million dollars to the U.S. economy in 2018, according to official data.

The data is contained in the 2019 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange released by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The report indicates that Nigeria is the 11th leading place of origin for foreign students in the U.S. as of the 2018/2019 session.

It accounts for 1.2 per cent of the total number of 1,095,299 international students in the country.

A breakdown of the figure shows that 5,689 of the Nigerian students are at the undergraduate level, 5,274 at the graduate level, 367 at the non-degree students, and 2,093 on Optional Practical Training (OPT).

According to Wikipedia, OPT is a period during which undergraduate and graduate students work for one year on a student visa toward acquiring practical training to complement their education.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria is the only African country in the top 20 places of origin for international students in the U.S.

China holds the top position with 369,548 students, followed by India with 202,014, South Korea (52,250), Saudi Arabia (37,080), and Canada rounding out the top five with 26,122 students.

According to the report, international students account for 5.5 per cent of the total U.S. higher education population.

Citing data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the report said that foreign students contributed 44.7 billion dollars to the U.S. economy in 2018, an increase of 5.5 per cent from the previous year.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are the top choices of international students with 52 per cent of the total studying in those fields, according to the report.

The report shows that out of 341,751 U.S. citizens studying abroad in 2017/18, Nigeria hosted 34 making it the 130th destination for American students.

The UK, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Ireland, China, Australia, Costa Rica, and Japan were the top 10 study destinations for American citizens, hosting an average of 18,000 students each.

South Africa occupies the 11th position on the table as host to 6,001 American students in 2017/18.

“We are happy to see the continued growth in the number of international students in the United States and U.S. students studying abroad,” said Marie Royce, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Washington, Royce said that promoting the mobility of international students remained a top priority for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

“We want even more students in the future to see the U.S. as the best destination to earn their degrees.

“International exchange makes our colleges and universities more dynamic for all students.

“Education at a U.S. institution can have a transformative effect for international students, just like study abroad experiences can for U.S. students,” she said.

Anambra state Police Command has arrested four suspected armed robbers and rapists in Ozubulu, Ekwusigo local government area of the state.

The command’s spokesman, Haruna Muhammed, in a statement made available to Daily Trust in Awka on Wednesday said the suspected armed robbers raped their victims after disposing them of their belongings.

According to him, on the 20/11/2019 at about 03:30am, Police operatives attached to the Command Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in conjunction with the Operations Kpochakpu arrested the suspects at Ozubulu.

He gave the suspects names as Collins Okpala (aged 25), Nwachukwu Chimanya (aged 20), Kenechukwu Anyasi (aged 23) and Pascal Ogbuagu (aged 22). He added that the suspects had on the 14/2/2019 abducted a girl of about 21 years old (name withheld), robbed her of her belongings and equally gang-raped her severally.

According to him, the suspects made a pornographic video clip of the rape incident and used the video to blackmail the victim to the tune of N1,000,000. The PPRO also stated that the suspects had confessed to the crime while the said video clip has also been recovered from their phones and registered as exhibit. “They will soon be charged to court for prosecution as soon as investigation is concluded,” he added.

He reiterated that the command under the watch of CP John B. Abang, would continue to provide safe and secure environment for all the citizenry before, during and after the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

“I wonder what kind of a system of government Nigeria is currently practising or operating”, the cleric said.

“With a couple of political issues in the country, I find it difficult to believe that we are not under the military. Are we enjoying the dividend of democracy?

“What have we gained as a people from political leaders since 1999? When we vote them into power, they dissapoint us.

“What manner of people are these? No doubt, miscreants have hijacked the best organizational structure our heroes laboured to build.

“We are now being governed by those whose conscience have been sold to the devil. The people of God will inherit Nigeria while the evil shall be punished,” said Giwa.

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A yet-to-be-identified armed man has reportedly robbed a popular Petrol Station located at Bank Road by Good Shed junction in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.

Reports have it that the armed man who came in the company of another member of his gang made away with undisclosed amount of cash and other valuables worth millions.

This is even as Policeman was reported to have been killed by unidentified gunmen that stormed a hotel along Mission Hill, off the heart of the state capital.

According to a source at the filling station, the armed men numbering three came in an ash-coloured Honda, pretending to buy N2000.00 fuel and surrendered them, including the security guards.

The source explained that, with two of them armed with long guns which she could not describe, they led her to the office and collected the sum of more than N70, 000.00, being sales for the day, in addition to the N12, 000.00 in her pocket and phones belonging to her colleagues.

She alleged that despite complying with the robbers, they were thoroughly beaten by the robbers before leaving the petrol station.

Lamenting over the incident, the General Manager of the filling station who chose to speak anonymously, after inspecting the facility disclosed that the incident was the fourth time since this year, stating that they were last robbed in September.

He called on the state government and other security agencies to intensify efforts in ensuring that criminals do not run down their businesses.

Speaking with our reporter, the State Commissioner of Police, Ene Okon confirmed the death of the police officer and the attack on the filling station.

Okon who said that the killer of the police sergeant has been identified as Sampson also hinted that the suspect was the one that equally robbed the Petrol Station.

“The armed robber is called great, but his real name is Sampson. He is an indigene of Ossah in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State. He was recently released from the Afara Prison. He knows that we have fortified Umuahia with security; he comes in around 1am.

“He attacked a Hotel along Mission Hill where he killed a Police Sergeant. He gained access into the hotel after scaling through the fence. The Policeman who was at the gate heard noise inside the building. While he was going to check what the noise was, he met the robber coming out of the building, but never knew that he (Sampson) was an armed robber.

“He was asking the man (Sampson) what was going on in the building, realizing that the Sergeant was a Police Officer, he fired him on the head and ran away, but returned to take an assault rifle that the policeman was having with him.

“He was the same person that robbed the filing Station. He has been using the rifle to carry out his robbery operation. We are on a serious trail of him now.”

Professor Tamunoemi Sokari David-West is dead.

He dies at age 83.

David-West was born in Buguma, Kalabari, in what is now Rivers State.

He received his higher education at the University of Ibadan (1956–1958) and earned a BSc degree at Michigan State University (1958–1960), an MSc degree at Yale University (1960–1962), and a PhD degree at McGill University.

He served in Nigerian government as commissioner of education and a member of the Executive Council of Rivers State (1975–1979), as a member of the fifty-person Constitution Drafting Committee for the Federal Military Government of General Murtala Muhammed (1979), as federal minister of petroleum and energy under General Muhammadu Buhari (1984–1985), and as minister of mines, power, and steel under General Ibrahim Babangida (1986).

He was eventually removed as minister and arrested by the Babangida regime for allegedly contributing to the economic adversity of the country; He was discharged and acquitted of these charges by Nigeria’s Special Appeal Court on 8 August 1991.