Lincoln University
Several
Nigerian students studying in an American university have been
threatened with deportation over a really unfortunate issue.
Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania, United States, has threatened
to deport 21 scholarship students in three weeks owing to the failure of
their sponsor, Nigeria’s Bayelsa State, to pay up their school fees,
which now totals nearly one million dollars, NAN reports.
Appealing to the government to intervene urgently to save their
career prospects, two of the students, who are all in their final
undergraduate semester at the institution, told a NAN correspondent by
telephone that following the payment for their first session, payments
became irregular until Bayelsa’s indebtedness of $970,000.
One of the students, Akpos Akins, explained that the university
would not even honor individual payments by the students or their
parents as the institution maintains that that would violate the
agreement it signed with the Bayelsa State Government.
He said their parents’ association had been working hard to get the state government to clear the outstanding fees to no avail.
The students, who acknowledged the good intentions of the foreign
education scholarships by the government, led by Governor Seriake
Dickson, pleaded for the immediate release of funds for the payment.
They said that the management of Lincoln University had been very
good to them despite the failure of the government to meet up with
payment for some time now.
Drawing attention to the three-week deadline given to them before
the school’s management takes action, the students pointed out that
without their transcripts, they cannot proceed with Industrial Training
or to graduate school.
"The management is then obligated to report us for deportation seeing we have no further business in the country,” they said.
“Our time and efforts would have been wasted if that happened. We want
to be seen as worthy ambassadors of Bayelsa State. We are going through
psychological trauma now, we cannot even focus on our studies.”
The students described the non-payment of their tuition as an
unnecessary distraction, noting that they were not even particular about
their irregular allowances at this point.
“We want to appeal to our countryman governor to save our future,” they said.
“The students are very grateful for this gesture to go study abroad.
Apart from giving us hope, we are coming back to contribute our quota to
the development of our dear Bayelsa State.”
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