On behalf of all federal scholars, I would like to bring to your and the public’s attention the current challenges facing students studying under the Nigerian Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship scheme with various countries, including Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Cuba and particularly  Russia.

The BEA scholarship scheme is a good initiative that has existed for more than 30 years in various forms. It is sad that the same problem of non-payment of scholars’ stipends that beset this scheme 30 years ago still rears its ugly head today. For the past eight months, the Nigerian federal government has abandoned its scholars to fend for themselves in the Russian Federation. Over three hundred Nigerian federal government scholars studying in Russia have been left without pay and no means of sustenance for the past eight months. These students have not been paid a dime in the year 2015. This pitiable situation has been a recurrence over the past couple of years with scholars often owed arrears of up to nine months.

 This year, Nigerian government scholars have not been paid for eight months.  It is important to note that almost all of these scholars solely rely on the government stipends. Majority of these students are from humble backgrounds. They were awarded this scholarship based on their excellent academic achievements. Due to laws governing the rights of foreign students in the above listed countries, these students are not permitted to work and in cases where they can, culture and language barriers make it almost impossible for them to be find employment. As a result of the above factors, delays associated with the payment of stipends have led to a humanitarian crisis with several students unable to feed and pay their hostel fees, while students who graduated two months ago are unable to return to Nigeria.

 Today, students on the program, with no rich family to help them, with no rich friends around to help them, wait and starve as they hope that someday, their stipends will be paid. Many students are defended their Bachelors and Masters’ theses without receiving a dime for their upkeep or feeding, or accommodation or research. Graduating students are at risk of overstaying their visa, as they do not have the necessary funds to buy tickets to go home after 7 years of study. In countries like Russia and Ukraine, this comes with a heavy penalty (imprisonment and deportation).

Despite these issues, these students continue to uphold the pride of the nation by refusing to engage in criminal activities to sustain themselves.  Just last week, a former recipient of this scholarship scheme, Dr. Dotun Olalusi, who graduated from The Russian  National Research Medical University, Moscow (RNRMU) in 2013 with a CGPA of 5.0, was honoured by the federal ministry of education and the federal scholarship board for his outstanding academic performance. The federal scholarship board and the federal ministry of education continually claim the glory of successes attained by beneficiaries of the scheme, yet these same students are left abandoned for months without any means of sustenance.  It is unfortunate that scholars, who have continued to excel in their academics in spite of their nation’s disregard for their welfare, have had to resort to begging in order to fend for themselves.

 In addition, these patriotic citizens of Nigeria have been unwilling to engage in any form of demonstration at the Nigerian embassy in Moscow to press home their demands. The leadership of the students’ association (The Association of Nigerian Scholarship Students in Russia) has explored several diplomatic measures to end this injustice but all efforts have proved futile. You will recall that the students on the amnesty program had a violent demonstration at the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow two years ago. Their stipends were only delayed for a couple of days! Since that incident, their allowances get paid regularly without delays. However, the scholarship students are expected to be on their best behaviour and represent the nation in the best light even if they are unpaid for eight months. That is a baffling expectation. Must a student to starve to death or do something disgraceful before the right thing is done?

 It is our hope that we will not have to undertake such extreme measures like those taken by the students on the amnesty program but if the federal government, the Federal Scholarship Board and the Nigerian embassy in Moscow fail to put an end to this injustice, we are willing to explore extreme measures to fight for our rights.

Olori Adebisi.

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Northern Nigeria seems to be an autonomous division within Nigeria.  A zone sitting geographically on 719,435 Square Kilometers of land – which is about 79% of Nigeria’s landmass and has about 392 numbers of ethnic groups (North West 54 North Central 123 North East 205) and almost 75 million or 53.6% of Nigeria’s population is no doubt the biggest zone in Nigeria.

 So far the zone has gone through several forms of ups and downs which is presently posing a big treat to its optimal capacity and overall survival.

Several studies carried out to seek an understanding of the numerous challenges ravaging the zone ranging from high illiteracy level which stands at 70% to housing  the largest number of handicaps in the country. Child immunization acceptance against dangerous childhood diseases is still around 10% and then the worse of all; the Boko Haram insurgency.

The Boko Haram insurgency might indeed be termed to be political in its design but the fact that it is being hosted in the North is a big treat. Questions coming to mind is, why will the people of the North allow the Boko Haram infest so deep within their habitat? This is simply the result of high illiteracy level in the North. The North is thought to be religious but are recent happenings not pointing to an opposite direction?  It is really shocking that this same region is the one that has produced wonderful Nigerian leaders in the past like Sir Tafa Balewa, Umaru Dikko, Shehu Shagari, Sadauna and many more, so what actually went wrong?

Looking deep into the current situation in the North,  a careful observer will see a degradation and fallout  which can be attributed to gross negligence of some sort by prominent statesman.

Other regions also play host to some civil unrest such as the Ife and Modakeke, Offa and Erin-Ile battle and Okene unrest to mention a few, but the point of interest in these civil unrest is that all prominent persons such as traditional rulers and politicians whose region were affected usually start a cleanup program so that such events are never to be witnessed ever again in the future, they don’t leave things in the hands of faith and pure negligence unlike many of their Northern counterparts.

Series of war in time past had broken out in the Northern part of Nigeria, I am sure we will remember;

-The  Kaduna riots of February 2000, where thousands died due to religious riots between Christians and Muslims over the introduction of sharia law in Kaduna State.

-Yelwa massacre of February – May 2004, Yelwa, Shendam and Kano where 975 were reported dead due to religiously motivated killings between Christians and Muslims.

2013 Baga massacre of 19-20 April 2013, Baga, Borno and a total of 228 were killed, although the identity of the perpetrators remains unclear; some blame the Nigerian military while others blame the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.

Kaje civil unrest and many other more, but after all these civil unrests, there has never been an orientation program or rehabilitation for the victims and the participants, a young boy who saw killings of tens of people in his presence grows up to become a wild animal and worst of it is if he actually participated in the killing.

We shouldn’t have been here if these Northern youths had not been exposed to a wild life right from the beginning  of their lives, a visit to the North will amaze one’s sense of what responsible parenting means. One will see a pack of boys in their early teens popularly called ‘almanjiri’ savaging around just to stay alive. They wander through life without any close understanding of what “good life” really means or entails.

Who do we hold responsible for the sorrowful and meaningless life these kids are subjected to? An average young boy of age 14 from the North would most likely have visited about 20 states in the country by following truck loads of goods without any real life expectancy.

 August 12, 2015 was the World Youth Day and I ask, “Is there anything worth celebrating for the Northern youth? Is it the unproductive life they have inherited or the uninspiring environment they now live in?

The move by the Senate President Bukola Saraki in identifying with the people of the North by his recent visit to the zone and the call on international community to help rebuild the North is a step in the right direction which all stakeholders must take a cue from.

The North needs massive infrastructural development but most importantly mental rehabilitation to guide against another brutal sect in the future. We must be ready to capture the traumatized youths and re-orientate them.  The negligence of the past is exactly what led to the situation we are in right now.

Why has the North been so marginalized and relegated to the background in terms of mental capacity building? There is another area the government must look into, this has to do with making sure that Northern youths are trained to understand the beauty in staying alive and being purposeful and productive.

Sadly the North that had once been the economic hub of this great nation is now being ravaged by war, poverty, illiteracy, diseases, high infant mortality. If the current happenings are not adequately managed to capture the victims, the North might just be a breeding place for a more sophisticated killing machine. I beg to ask why shouldn’t the kids from the North be equipped  to compete with kids from the South, East and West?

@shewn007 on Twitter

Views expressed above are solely that of the author and doesn’t represent the views of Omojuwa.com or its associates.

Eight days after he tendered the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the disputed Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district election results, the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Amadu Attai on Wednesday  appeared before the Hon Justice Goddy Anunihu led Akwa Ibom State National and State Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the Customary Court,  Dutsen Alhaji , Abuja to conclude his testimony at the tribunal as a witness in the ongoing trial of the disputed March 28, 2015 National Assembly election.

Dr Attai who on last Tuesday tendered the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the final result of the Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district election as was allegedly issued by the 2nd respondent (INEC) sought the leave of the court to tender the Atlas of Constituency of the three senatorial districts in the state as produced by INEC  and relied upon for nomination and election into the senatorial seat. This was opposed by Akpabio , INEC and the PDP .

Counsel to Akpabio, Paul Usoro (SAN) objected to the document being tendered, insisting that the full document and not an extract of it ought to have been tendered. He also argued that the witness is not the maker of the document.

Counsel to 2nd respondent, S. N. Mbaezue also objected to it saying the whole document should have been tendered to properly guide the tribunal on how the delineation was done.

Also speaking, counsel to the 3rd respondent,  Adekunle Adesanya (SAN) said Section 71 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) does not talk about an extract of a document but the whole document. He asserted that it will be unsafe for the tribunal to rely on the document as issued. The trio prayed the tribunal to discountenance the document sought to be tendered to the tribunal through the state party chairman.

Responding, counsel to the petitioner, Chief Assam Assam (SAN) told the tribunal that “admissibility is a point of law. To object, the objection must be based on law. None of the respondents counsels referred to any law backing their opposition to the admissibility of the document “, he submitted.

He referred the tribunal to Section 104 of the Evidence Act and told the tribunal that the witness applied for the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the disputed document and was duly issued by the 2nd respondent (INEC).

He told the tribunal that all the respondents counsels agreed the extract was part of a document produced by INEC in line with Section 71 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).  None of them disputed that fact, he said. He relied on Section 83 (1)a Sub 2 of the Evidence Act and submitted that the document in question is the only document relevant to the election to the Senate in Akwa Ibom state.
“Relevance is the fulcrum for admissibility. It’s funny that the 3rd respondents counsel will say that it will be unsafe to rely on a document issued by the 2nd respondent  (INEC) and signed by the Acting Head of Legal Department of the electoral Commission. INEC who issued the document never intended to misguide the court. Besides, the document in question was front loaded since April 18th,2015  and due notice given to all the parties. INEC for once never denied the existence of the document”, he submitted.

He prayed the court to discountenance the submission of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents and admit the document because according to him, “what constitutes a senatorial district in Akwa Ibom state is an issue in this trial and the delineation of constituencies under the constitution is relevant and admissible and I don’t see why they are running away from it”, he declared.

On the claim by counsel to the 3rd respondent that the senatorial districts in the state is not an issue in contention ,Chief Assam told the tribunal that it is indeed an issue as paragraph 12 of the petition pleaded that the Constituency the 1st respondent was nominated to contest election in Akwa Ibom state is different from the Constituency in question in this trial. “This is a document that forms part of this election, why are they not objecting, “, he asked. “You don’t plead documents, you plead facts”, he submitted. A position the tribunal agreed with.

The tribunal went on break and reconvened at about 1.55pm.

Ruling on the matter, Chairman of the tribunal, Hon Justice Goddy Anunihu said the three basic facts is that a document sought to be tendered must be pleaded, relevant and admissible. He declared that though the 3 page document is a Certified True Copy of the Nigerian Atlas of Electoral Constituency, a Publication of the Independent National Electoral Commission, with page 24 showing a map of the three senatorial districts and page 25 showing the Local Government Areas and number of Registered Voters therein, with date of certification, the disputed document has not met the relevance criteria as stipulated by law. As it only states the senatorial districts and not candidates nominated for the constituencies thus the document stands rejected.

The chairman was then cross examined by counsel to the 1st respondent, Paul Usoro who sought to know the relevant disciplines he got his degrees. He told the tribunal he had his first degree in Philosophy, second degree in Public Administration and a PHD in Political Science.  Counsel to 2nd and 3rd respondents declined to cross examine the witness after Usoro was done with cross examination.

Also testifying, a former Commissioner for Health and Works in the state, Dr Udoma Ekarika while responding to a question of why he left the PDP by counsel to 3rd respondent said, he left the party because of the high level of impunity that characterized the party which were not in consonance with the founding ideals of it’s founding father’s. A total of 16 witnesses have testified against Akpabio. The case was adjourned to Thursday, August 13, 2015 for continuation of trial.

The popularity of the All Progressive Congress (APC) across the North East is not debatable. Whoever knows the political trends in the North East will draw conclusion that the party has the highest support in Gombe State.

When President Muhammadu Buhari visited Gombe during the presidential rally, a large crowd of supporters brought all activities to a standstill during the rally. The support the party candidate, Alhaji Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya also commands was tremendous. It is therefore puzzling when the electoral umpire, INEC, declared the party loser in the governorship election.

Forget the exaggerated “achievements” of Governor Dankwambo and take into cognizance the underlying facts, hard facts! If you are familiar with Gombe politics, take a critical look at the scenarios, assess the formidable structure of the party, put into account the whirlwind of CHANGE that swept across even Benue and Plateau States, consider the heavyweight politicians in the APC fold, and then ponder how APC “lost” the governorship election in Gombe State? It is unimaginable. The facts are clear: APC won convincingly in the polls.

But as events unfold, it was understood that the ruling party in the state had rigged massively in some local government areas of the state. The desperation by the state governor to return to power at all cost with active connivance of the disgruntled elements in the APC fold made the rigging plans possible.

The APC in Gombe state however discovered a huge discrepancy in the votes captured by the INEC card reader and the results captured in Forms EC8A and EC8B. Some results also varied from the poling unit level to ward levels. The discrepancies are just numerous, just as the rigging machinery was heavy.

As a law-abiding party, we toed the ideal path of seeking redress. Surprisingly, however, the electoral umpire that should be neutral in the matter, is siding with the ruling party to justify the electoral heist at the tribunal. If I am not mistaken, the new INEC’s acting chairperson, Hajiya Amina Zakari, had said that the commission would not support any party that violates electoral laws during election. In a nutshell, the commission will not side with election riggers.

But it seems INEC in Gombe State is crying more than the bereaved. The officials are either inaccessible or uncooperative of APC, but cooperative and supportive of the PDP.

Even before our party secured order from the tribunal to have access to the materials, the commission frustrated our efforts. And after getting the order, INEC officials kept on sabotaging our efforts such that an obsolete photocopier was provided to photocopy the materials. In view of the bulkiness of the materials to be photocopied or scanned, and the constraint of time, the commission denied our party’s offer to provide enough and functional photocopiers and scanners in order to meet the deadline. Note also that APC had paid INEC the sum of N11 million as charges for processing of election materials but despite the payment of the “administrative charges”, the commission refused to give us cooperation.

Gombe INEC’s frustration of our efforts therefore compelled the tribunal to set aside our prayer seeking re-count of the ballot papers used for the 2015 governorship election and also present the result as part of the proceedings. In a simple term, the tribunal set aside an order directing INEC to produce the said ballot papers for a recount in the presence of all parties.

In a recent interview with journalists in Gombe, the secretary of APC in Gombe State Alhaji Sallau Manu Pindiga, confirmed that the electoral commission has ulterior motive in its refusal to be fair to all parties.

Corroborating the state party scribe’s position, APC’s counsel, Mr. Akintola noted that INEC Head of operations had said he was not authorised to produce the documents for verification, adding that his client paid over N11million to INEC to bring all relevant document.

The substitution of the two out of the three-man panel of judges in the tribunal at the crucial stanza of the trial is also giving the teeming members of our party a cause for complain and concern. The new panel seems to be on a mission to unwind earlier decisions of the tribunal.

For instance, the new panel recently dismissed and nullified the petition of the ADC candidate in the election, whose name and logo were excluded in most of the ballots, on the basis of the question over the competence of the petitioner’s counsel, Mr. Sam Kagbo. Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Mohammed Sirajo in his ruling upheld that based on the provision of Section 1 (2) and 24 of the Legal Practitioner’s act: “Only persons whose names are on the roll of legal practitioners can practice as barristers of solicitors in court”.

Although this simple technicality was trashed away by the previous tribunal judges, Justice Sirajo insisted the name “Sam Kagbo” as used by the petitioners’ counsel was not on the role of legal practitioners despite the fact that the counsel is widely known to use the short forms of his name in all his legal dealings and the fact that the petition was counter-signed by the party.

Those responsible for the substitution of the judges should have given reason for the decision, failing which our party would suspect a foul play.

*Lawanti, an APC stakeholder, wrote from Gombe