Acting managing director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nelson Brambaifa, has returned from a visit to the United Kingdom (UK) where he tried to save the Commission’s scholarship scheme from the lingering crisis of non-payment of fees to the foreign scholars.
The issue had lingered all through the tenure of Nsima Ekere where most students wrote passionate letters home about their conditions in foreign schools due to non-remittance of their fees by the NDDC.
Ekere had told journalists in July 2017 that a panel was set up to resolve the crisis, saying there was need to probe the award to avoid wrong persons enjoying the foreign scholarships. He however pledged that the Commission would start paying for those without doubts. Despite the assurances, the scholars and their parents kept calling into radio stations back home over their plights.
As Brambaifa takes over, he seemed to be confronted by the stench and the wailing from abroad, thus the UK trip.
Speaking at the Port Harcourt International Airport shortly on arrival from the five-day working visit to some universities in the UK, the professor said there was an urgent need to resolve all outstanding issues with the NDDC-sponsored post-graduate students and their host institutions.
He said his team realised that most of the schools were not paid. “We needed to address some of the issues that border on our relationship with the schools, as well as the students.”
It is not clear why the NDDC started owing their foreign scholars but sources said crisis came when the Ekere management stayed action on the scholarships awarded before he came. A review ordered into the exercise and this was used as excuse to delay payment for many months.
The acting MD however said time has come to resolve the matter. He also said the Commission had reached some landmark agreements in the area of human capital development.
As a result, the University of Coventry, UK, will next month sign a memorandum of understanding with the NDDC to boost education in the oil region.
Brambaifa, who led the NDDC delegation, which included the Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Chris Amadi, and other directors of the Commission, said the visit was an opportunity to deepen the existing relationships with foreign universities and take advantage of other mutually beneficial programmes.
The NDDC CEO said that the team visited the scholars benefiting from the Commission’s Foreign Post Graduate Scholarship Scheme in the University of Coventry, University of Derby, University of Salford, University of Birmingham, University of Hertfordshire and University of Huddersfield.
It was gathered that the team got a commitment from Coventry to grant additional scholarships to students who excel at first degree level. By this arrangement, first class students from the region will be granted scholarship by Coventry University.
As part of the collaboration, it was further gathered, there was an agreement for the establishment of specific Master’s level scholarships for best graduating students from universities in the Niger Delta region, as well as an arrangement for the establishment of a Doctoral Training Centre.
