An encounter with the Nigerian state

Wale Adebanwi and Ebenezer Obadare in their edited work, Encountering the Nigerian State ask some pertinent questions regarding “how people perceive the state, how their understanding is shaped by their particular locations and intimate and embodied encounters with state processes and officials, and how the state manifests itself in their lives?” To be sure, for the majority of Nigerians, the experiences have been negative.  And those experiences are principally why the state too has lost what C. Young and T. Turner call “the moral entitlement of the state to legitimacy”.

One needs to listen to stories of citizens to understand how derelict and lacking in credibility the Nigerian state has become. Besides the daily harassment and mistreatment of citizens by agents of the state, the state also fails to honour its agreements and contracts legally entered into with foreign institutions and organisations. 

This week, I present a citizen’s encounter with the state and his passionate plea to the Nigerian government to fulfil its responsibility to them as legally agreed. The subject is Dr Chinedu Ugwu, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

“On the 15th of September 2013, I left Nigeria as one of the first beneficiaries of the Presidential Special Scholarship for Innovation and Development (PRESSID) to the University of Oxford. I was full of great dreams and high hopes. Most of all I was happy and grateful for exceptional opportunity accorded me by the Federal government of Nigeria. The scholarship was to cover our tuition, accommodation and heating, return flight tickets, living expenses, local travels and other special costs during the course of our study (both Masters and PhD) with the hope of acquiring knowledge and experience that will truly make us effective change agents in our beloved country Nigeria when we return to fulfil our part of the agreement made under the PRESSID Bond.

I studied MSc in immunology in Oxford which is about understanding how our body defence system functions against infectious and non-infectious diseases. I worked in a lab group involved in the production of antibody against breast cancer which is currently on clinical trial. At the end of my masters, I secured a PhD position at the University of Cambridge to study the Immunology of viral zoonotic. My research is focused on how our immune system interacts with haemorrhagic fever viruses such as Lassa fever virus, Ebola virus etc. I am currently in the third year of my PhD and hoping to round off by September 2018.

The opportunity to study in these prestigious educational institutions in the UK, as in my case, has indeed been highly beneficial to my personal and professional development. For this, I am eternally grateful to the Federal government of Nigeria. However, since the beginning of the 2016/17 session, most of us jointly-sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) have not received payment of our tuition fees and living allowances. The delayed payment, especially of living allowances, has caused us severe hardship that cannot aptly be described in words. Our efforts to reach the administrative office in charge at the NUC in the last several months have been futile. We have also written to the Nigeria high commission in London with no response. We were lucky to secure an interview with channels TV Nigeria sunrise daily on the 3rd of June 2017 to present our plight to the general public with the hope of attracting government attention. Also, several media outfits shared our story. It’s now over two months since my interview, we are yet to get any official response from the Federal government of Nigeria. The unofficial communication we got from the interview was that the scholarship has been transferred to federal scholarship board. As at the time of writing, neither Federal scholarship board nor NUC has officially communicated this to us or our schools.

Most of us have exhausted all our savings and means of survival while accumulating debts from various sources such as our family, friends, and our academic and financial institutions. While some of us have had to take up part-time jobs, these have hardly helped to alleviate the financial hardship and have interrupted the smooth-flow of our studies, the primary reason for being in our respective institutions of higher learning (with cases such as missing classes and stalling laboratory experiments to meet up with job schedules). Some of us have been served with eviction notices in our various accommodation, while a majority of us have incurred huge debts and are being harassed by bailiffs. Also, some have faced sanctions from their universities such as limiting access to university portals and certain laboratories and facilities, and withholding results, among others. The emotional and psychological impact of all these are devastating. Indeed the government’s silence is killing and leaves us in confusion and despair. Most times it seems that my great hope and dreams are disappearing with every passing day.

I humbly plead that Federal government respond to our plight and pay up our living expenses and tuition. I strongly believe that the investment in our education and training in the world’s best academic institutions is a laudable endeavour, the benefits of which are vast and will have a long-lasting positive impact on human capital development in our dear country, Nigeria. The PRESSID scheme has given us the exceptional privilege to engage with the best minds in various disciplines in the sciences, economics, and engineering, and to develop innovative ideas and projects which are critical for the growth and sustainable development of the Nigerian economy. Few of us who have graduated are currently working in some of the Universities at home. Most of us are in our second to final years of our postgraduate degrees and are genuinely enthusiastic about coming back to make our individual contributions in our respective sectors of expertise to move our country forward. Turning your back on us at this last lap will deny us the certificate that we have invested our time and the nation’s money. We hope that your swift intervention would prompt the quick payment of all arrears to cover our living expenses and tuition fees which would be a huge relief. We would be able to pay bailiffs and creditors who have been threatening us with legal action. We would also be able to focus once again on our research and study, so that we may complete them in due time and return to contribute our acquired skills, knowledge and expertise to the development of our country. 

Christopher Akor