Rivers State-Sponsored Students in America Decry Abandonment by the Government

Posted by George on Mon 10th Aug, 2015 - tori.ng

It is a very bad time for the Rivers state indigenes in diaspora who benefited from the scholarship programme of the state as the government has stopped funding their education which has consquently left them stranded.

Rivers state students in the United States of America as well as the United Kingdom are currently stranded abroad following the state government's failure to fund their education as their scholarship programme demands.

It should be noted that their plight is pitiable because their visa type restricts them from working. This has left them barely struggling to see the next day.

See a short write-up from their representative below:

"Imagine staying in a foreign country where due to visa-type, you are not allowed to work as a student and yet you have had to feed and source for accommodation from strangers or squat with friends for about 4 months during the summer break. So far none of us have had to sleep under a bridge to pass a night, but time has come for us to resume school and we need help as we cannot do much to help our predicament.

Some of us can not even afford our fare back to school. we urgently need the Rivers State government to meet their responsibilities to us and pay our fees, including tuition and upkeep allowances owed for 8 months. Rivers State (U.S based) students are faced with the issue of being dropped out of school due to the fact that their tuition have not been paid since last year.

Some schools have issued deadlines with the earliest being 15th August, 2015 for the fees to be paid, otherwise, the students would not be enrolled for the semester or even register for classes. It is disheartening to know that our government has failed us in that regard and if nothing is done about our predicament, we would most likely lose our F1 student status and may face deportation"