.•As aggrieved scholars appeals to President Tinubu to prevail on tetfund to do the needful
A shocking and sad development was exposed on Friday as investigations by our Reporters revealed that TETfund had snubbed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to support all foreign Nigerian scholars affected by the I’ll-fated exchange rate. 45 percent of Nigerian scholars currently on the sponsorship of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) abroad have been omitted in the disbursement of funds. Further findings revealed that most of the scholars were also shortchanged.
The shocking discovery was made following an effort to confirm via investigation, the widely publicized claim by TETFund that it had spent 3.8billion to bailout stranded Nigerian scholars overseas due to snowballing exchange rate against the Naira.
It would be recalled that the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, had in May, declared that the fund spent 3.8billion Naira to bailout Nigerian scholars who had sought for the Federal Government’s intervention. He added that the bailout was for 1,500 Nigerian scholars who had been abroad since 2017 till date.
Meanwhile, investigation conducted by our Reporters disclosed that 45 percent of the Nigerian scholars stranded abroad were omitted in the disbursement of the presidential bailout funds by tetfund for no convincing reasons.
It was also discovered that this group of aggrieved scholars have written SOS letters to several authorities including the Presidency, House of Senate, House of Representatives , Ministry of Education and tetfund among others and appealed for assistance but their efforts are yet to yield any positive response from the authorities.
It was also gathered that the affected scholars had made several consultations with officials of TETFund but all such efforts have been futile over the time.
One of the SOS letters reads in part: “… l am writing on behalf of all the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) sponsored foreign scholars who were omitted from the payment of the recently approved Presidential Bailout to all TETFund foreign scholars within the year 2018 – 2023. Initially, the bailout was designed as a measure to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Naira devaluation/exchange rate, and particularly, inflation in the cost of living on scholars, hence the reason for the timeframe under review (2018 – 2023) considering that scholars within this period are grossly affected. TETFund has been a cornerstone in supporting higher education in Nigeria, providing essential financial aid for infrastructure, research, and academic staff development. We sincerely appreciate the generous bailout approved by Mr. President, His Excellence, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as this would alleviate the burden on Scholars. However, our confidence in the fair implementation of the disbursement has been severed.
Currently, about 45 percent of the TETFund sponsored foreign scholars were omitted in the disbursement of the presidential-approved bailout by TETFund, subjecting scholars to harsh conditions amidst the current economic realities. While we tried to engage TETFund to ensure fairness in the disbursement, scholars were told that some are not qualified, based on programme status, while our recent request for engagement was turned down by the Fund. Meanwhile, both scholars on their programme and those recently completed were unjustly omitted without any tangible justification provided.
Initially, there were no segregation of scholars or any discrepancies during the agreement of conditions for bailout. Also, both ongoing and completed Scholars were paid during the first and second tranches of the disbursed bailout paid between January to March 2024. This includes scholars across Europe, Asia, America and other part of the globe, while TETFund refused to pay fellow scholars in the same categories with no concrete justification. Additionally, we strongly believe that the alien criteria of ongoing and completed does not hold through in the case of scholars due to many reasons, including the fact that all scholars under review are affected by COVID-19 or Naira devaluation. For instance, a 2019 PhD scholar, affected by COVID-19 upon resumption to his school, subjected to quarantine, naira devaluation (from 250 naira per dollar in 2019 to 450 naira in 2020 and over 1,500 in 2023) and post COVID-19 inflation, this is aside from flight fare that has exponentially increased. This shows that such scholars under review (as generously considered by the Presidency) have witnessed severe financial crises and harsh economic realities.
To buttress, we have witnessed instances where TETFund paid scholars who even completed their program as early as 2022, and yet refused to pay both ongoing and the recently completed scholars, who have run into severe financial crises. Aside from the ongoing and completed cases, TETFund has also omitted Foreign sponsored scholars on Benchwork and Post Doctoral programs within this same time frame, who had been subjected to equal economic hardship in foreign land. Currently, most omitted scholars are either in debt or battling with depression, due to the harsh financial situations caused by their omission from the Presidential approved bailout.”
Speaking through their chairman, Kamal A. Odunjo-Saka, the aggrieved scholars have appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu o urgently come to their rescue by prevailing on tetfund to disburse their funds accordingly.
“We have absolute faith in our dear President and are very sure that he would consider our plight and urgently assist us by prevailing on tetfund to without delay, disburse our withheld funds for survival”, the representative said.
