Nigeria’s university lecturers end eight-month strike

Nigeria’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended an eight-month strike, the group has said on social media.

ASUU, the umbrella body for university lecturers nationwide, announced the move on Friday but did not provide details on when schools will reopen.

The decision came after intense negotiations between ASUU and government representatives at a meeting mediated by members of the House of Representatives in Abuja, local media reported.

“Let all of us working together and the members of the House of Representatives working together, put a beautiful end to this thing we have started so that every Nigerian will be proud that we have the universities we can be proud of,” ASUU president Emmanuel Osodeke was quoted as saying by local media.

“We also extend our appreciation to the president for intervening in the ASUU strike. And I want to appeal that in future we should not allow strike to linger. Strike should not go beyond two days,” Osodeke added.

He is also expected to announce in the coming days when academic activities will resume in universities.

Millions of students nationwide have been at home since February 14 as part of the latest of a long wave of strikes, which are common in Nigeria.

Nigeria has more than 100 public universities and an estimated 2.5 million students, according to the country’s National Universities Commission. At least 15 recorded strikes have taken place in the universities since 2000.

The striking lecturers were demanding a review of their conditions of service including the platform the government uses to pay their earnings, improved funding for the universities and payment of their salaries withheld since the strike started.

Al Jazeera

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CGTN

Chimamanda shines Nigeria’s torch, receives Harvard’s highest honour

Award-winning Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has been decorated with the iconic W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University.

The award ceremony, held at the Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall at Harvard University campus in Massachusetts, on Thursday, marking a return of the event after a nearly three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introducing Chimamanda as one of the honourees, Tracy Kaysmith, a faculty member in the department of English, African and African American Studies, described her as one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

“Chimamanda is consecrated to the work of the word, which is soul work in a large and cosmic way. You have a vision that is large, but it begins in small intimate particular spaces. It is as attached to the vocabularies of causes as it is to the dialect of the heart, and I believe your work reminds us of what it looks like to look around at the small and vast both in and around us,” she said.

Celebrating her contributions to amplifying the African voice, Kaysmith said: “In her novels, Adichie has brought African voices to the attention of the wider world. She’s cast African immigrants in stories that are once universally resonant and gloriously precise, particular to the world in which they’re born. She is a superstar who is also part of an African literary renaissance in the company of my brilliant colleagues that demand each of us work hard to understand the vast traffic of cultures, beliefs, and identities that swirl around and intersect with our own.”

Listing her immense contributions to the course of gender equality, Kaysmith said: “She became an icon of 21st-century feminism for demanding that if equality is the goal, then we must honestly name one of the very real obstacles to genuine equality.”

Kaysmith thanked Chimamanda for her tremendous literary gifts. “For your fierce commitment to moving humanity beyond the constraints of a single story, single vocabulary, single set of expectations, we recognise you, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, with the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal.”

In her acceptance speech, Chimamanda thanked the organisers of the award. She thanked the Hutchins Centre Director, Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr, calling him an icon for making African American history and literature mainstream and normal as it should be.

Reaffirming her love for writing, Chimamanda said: “Writing is the love of my life, literature has mattered to me for so long, and it’s always so meaningful for me to have my work recognised. The most meaningful thing for me as a writer is to know that I can create something that means something to other people, and so, what moves me the most is to hear from people who have read me say your work made me see, your work made me think differently, your work made me feel that I was not alone.”

In her final remarks to the students, she said: “For the young people who are here, if you care about anything, please care about reading. Reading is so important. Reading is magical, books are magical. I really think that one of the best ways to counter the ugly tsunami of book banning going around in this county is to read. I just want to make a very small suggestion, how about you give up social media for two weeks, three weeks, a month, and read, read, read.”

Reflecting on the choice of this year’s awardees, Gates Jr. said the honourees represent an “unyielding commitment to pushing the boundaries of representation and creating opportunities for advancement and participation for people who have been too often shut out from the great promise of our times.”

Other honourees at the award ceremony included basketball legend, cultural critic and activist, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was recognised for his achievements in his 50 years of basketball career; ground-breaking actress Laverne Cox for her impressive career as a four-time Emmy nominated actress and prominent equal rights advocate; Agnes Gund, President emerita of the Museum of Modern Arts; Raymond J. McGuire, Chairman of the Studio Museum in Harlem and philanthropist; Deval Patrick, 71st governor of Massachusetts and civil rights leader; Betye Saar, artist, on her reflection on African and American identity.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Medal is the highest honour given by Harvard University in the field of African and African American studies. Past recipients include Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Muhammad Ali, Steven Spielberg, Ava Duvernay, and Chinua Achebe.

By Sunday Aikulola

The Guardian

Related story: Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie wins the Kassel Citizens' " Prism of Reason" Award

 

More children out of school in Nigeria than in war-torn Ethiopia, Congo

A report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), has put the number of out of school children in Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari at a whopping 20.2 million.

The report published on Thursday on the website of the United Nations agency, noted that out of an estimated 244 million out-of-school children around the world, Nigeria alone accounts for over 20 million of the total, which is above 10 percent of the entire figure.

According to the figure, Nigeria has more out-of-school children than war-torn African countries like Ethiopia with 10.5 million out-of-school children, Congo with 5.9 million and drought-ravaged Kenya which has only 1.8 million out-of-school children.

An accompanying statement by UNESCO’s Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, noted that sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the most children and youths out of school, with a total of 98 million children with Nigeria churning up about 47 percent of the figure.

“It is also the only region where this number is increasing: out-of-school rates are falling more slowly than the rate at which the school-age population is growing.

“Important data gaps have been filled in countries that have large out of school numbers but where no administrative data of good quality has been available for over a decade, such as Nigeria which has an estimated 20.2 million children and youth out of school, Ethiopia (10.5 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (5.9 million) and Kenya (1.8 million),” the UNESCO chief said.

“In view of these results, the objective of quality education for all by 2030, set by the United Nations, risks not being achieved. We need a global mobilization to place education at the top of the international agenda,” Azoulay added.

By Isaac Dachen

Ripples Nigeria

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Nigeria is experiencing a massive rise in education tourism. This is amid an indefinite strike action that has left public universities shut for months. Students are now seeking options in the UK, Canada, and other countries where they can continue their studies.

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Nigeria has 11 million of out-of-school children, highest in world

The World Bank has said that Nigeria has the highest number of out of school children in the world with 11 million pupils recorded in 2020.

The Nigerian out of school children was 15 million in 2003.

According to the global financial institution, the number of school children under review who are between 6-15years increased by 100% between 2003 and 2020.

This was disclosed in the World Bank document titled “Nigeria Development Update (June 2020): The Continuing Urgency of Business Unusual.”

It revealed that the number of in-school children in 2003 was 20 million and has increased to 40 million in 2020, stating that the population of Nigerian children aged 6-15years in 2003 was 35 million and 51 million in 2020.

It, however, stated that more efforts need to be made to ensure Nigeria’s children are back to school.

The Bank said, “Although Nigeria has experienced a significant expansion in access to education during the last few decades, it still has the highest number of out-of-school (OOS) children in the world.”

The bank continued, “Nigeria’s more than 11 million OOS children between the ages of 6 and 15 represent 1 in 12 OOS children globally. The OOS children phenomenon in Nigeria is multi-causal and will require a combination of interventions. On the demand side, reducing the cost of education by eliminating school fees, providing cash transfers, and shifting socio-cultural norms that prevent school enrollment are critical steps.”

Reacting to the report, Statisense disclosed that the number, “represents 1 in 12 of all out-of-school children globally and 22% of all children in this age group in Nigeria.”

By Biodun Busari

Vanguard

‘We are stuck’: months of university strikes leave young Nigerians’ lives on hold

Before February, Khalil Rahman Abdullah would start his day with morning prayers before racing off to classes at the University of Ilorin, where he is a final-year medical student.

These days, he wakes to his phone and laptop screen, then browses the web or signs up to online courses. As time ticks by, like many Nigerian students, he is becoming enormously frustrated.


Nigeria’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body for university lecturers, went on strike on 14 February … and staff have not returned since.

“With the strike, it means I will spend a longer year,” says Abdullah, 28, who would have qualified by now if the strike hadn’t happened. “The bulk of the work I do at this level is hands-on, not what you can study at home. You need constant exposure to patients.”

The ASUU says it is protesting over the government’s refusal to fulfil a 2009 agreement which included a better welfare package and improved facilities for universities across Nigeria. It also wants the government to adopt the University Transparency and Accountability Solution [UTAS] for payment of its members’ salaries.


For students like Abdullah, plans for their lives and careers have been put on hold. “At this point, I am not supposed to be a student,” says Abdullah.

The current strike comes after a 10-month strike in 2020. National affairs analyst Alausa Issa Sanni says the strike is bringing an “idleness to young people”. “The danger is that we will have potential students becoming uninterested in education. Many have already lost interest, and it leaves the country in a shaky place.”

But Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU president, says the industrial action is in the best interests of students. “The students are not being punished – what we are doing is fighting for the future of the Nigerian university system,” he says.

“We are negotiating with the federal government, and making emphatic progress. We hope the government will accept whatever they’ve negotiated, and then we can look at all the issues and come back to work if they meet the conditions.

Osodeke adds that the government only started negotiating three weeks ago, and lecturers have not been paid for four months.

The strike has crippled small businesses that depend on students. Sherif Olayiwola, 27, runs a cafe on the Ilorin campus. “When the students left, there was nothing to do other than close down. I’m eating into my savings, and I’m scared they may finish before the strike will be called off. I don’t know how things are going to pan out.”

Fatima Owoeye, a final-year history student at Ilorin, says the strike has left her feeling depressed. “At my age, I am supposed to have something promising I’m doing, but the fact that the country is not good at all makes it impossible. I was supposed to spend four years in school, and it has turned to almost six years now.”

To ease the burden on her single mother, who cares for her and her two siblings, Owoeye has started applying for jobs. Most employers turned her down for not having a degree, even though she sat her final exams a week before the strike began. “Some told me they want someone who can work full-time and won’t leave after school resumes,” she says.

She has learned to bake to keep herself engaged, but she remains troubled by the knowledge that most employers in Nigeria’s competitive job market discriminate against applicants older than 24. “I will be 26 next year. What position will I be in? Will I be able to get these opportunities? This is not the plan I had for myself,” she says.

“I’m not moving forward, I’m not moving backward, I’m just in one place.”

By Pelumi Salako

The Guardian

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Video - Nigeria university lecturers strike threatens graduation plans

 

A strike by university lecturers in Nigeria is threatening graduation plans for final year students. As Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports, the academics are warning that they will continue the disruption until the government implements an agreement reached 13 years ago.

Sylvester Oromoni and Nigeria’s school system

The death of Sylvester Oromoni, a JSS 2 student of Dowen College in Lekki, Lagos, under controversial circumstances, has understandably sparked outrage – with both parents and other concerned citizens expressing shock and anger. Sylvester Oromoni Jr’s death speaks to the failure of the Nigerian school system, the collapse of morals and the evil that has overtaken not just the education sector but virtually every segment of society. Many parents toil day and night to be able to give their children the benefit of a good education. With the Nigerian public education system having failed – many public schools do not even have blackboards, or chalk or duster, and many do not have decent classrooms, the children sit in decrepit buildings threatening to collapse; the teachers are poorly paid or they do not even get their salaries; the learning environment in many schools would seem fit only for goats and poultry, certainly not for those we describe as leaders of tomorrow. Faced with such a harum-sacrum public education system and demoralised teachers, many families opt to send their children to private schools. These schools vary in terms of structure, facilities and standards, depending on location and ownership. But what has been seen is the failure of the entire system, both public and private.

The standards of old have disappeared. Nigeria’s places of learning have become environments of strife and chaos. The moral turpitude, which has turned Nigeria into a land of failure – the failure of ethos, governance and leadership – has crept into the schools. In the Northern part of the country, terrorists routinely kidnap students for ransom, for conversion to the Islamic religion, for recruitment as child brides or soldiers, or as pawns in a sustained assault against the Nigerian state. Over 600 schools have been shut down this year alone due to terrorist attacks. In the South, patterns of violence have also been observed in schools. The students are on drugs, they form cult gangs, they bully one another, and they join armed robbery gangs. Each time there is a report of kidnap or disruption in any Nigerian school, there are loud ooohs and aaahs, and soon the noise dies down and we all wait until the next crisis occurs.

The latest is the death of Sylvester Oromoni Jr. He was said to have been bullied by four of his colleagues at Dowen College. They beat him up. They gave him a substance to drink. Every effort by his family to rescue him failed. He died in the hospital. Before he gave up the ghost, he reportedly mentioned the names of his assailants. The school had tried to cover up the incident by insisting that he was only injured during a football session and that he was not bullied by anyone. His father, who celebrated his 12th birthday, post-humously, on December 4th (what a way to handle grief!) insists that he wants the truth. He wants justice. And he would not bury his son until justice is done. He has the support of the Delta State government, the community he hails from and concerned parents across the country. Every family is united in condemning the death of the innocent 12-year-old. Master Oromoni could have been the child of any other family. Many testimonies have been given by other parents about how their children were bullied too and the cost of the negligence of school authorities. But one question: Why did it take so long before the deceased was taken to hospital for help?

The Lagos State government has shut down and sealed off Dowen College indefinitely. The government and the Nigeria Police have also commenced investigations into the incident. The school authorities finally managed to issue a statement on December 2. The school denied flatly that Sylvester Oromoni was ever beaten, bullied or assaulted by any student and that any other story is at best “wild social media tales.” Dowen College’s authorities also disclosed that the school has a “very cordial relationship” with the Oromoni family as Sylvester Jr. was “the fifth child of the family Dowen College had the privilege to train…” We are further told that the school is “built on core values of Godliness and Excellence and will not tolerate any acts of cultism…” Thus, there are two sides to the story of the painful death of Sylvester Oromoni, and it is the more reason an investigation is important: To establish the truth and to ensure that justice is done. I have heard some concerned parents threatening that if Sylvester had been their child, they would have gone to the school to burn it down and demonstrate “serious madness.” No parent ever wants a child to die. Parents send their children to school to prepare them for the future and help them achieve their dreams. Sylvester Oromoni wanted to be a pilot. That dream is dead, and a whole future has been buried. It is indeed painful.

It is even the more reason that both the Lagos State government and the Police must do a thorough investigation. There have been similar promises of investigations in the past which yielded no results. This particular case must not be swept under the carpet. This has come to public attention because it was reported by a whistleblower. The question is: How widespread are cases of this nature within the school system? Lagos State has over 20, 000 private schools, from primary to the tertiary level. Can the State boast of a strong inspectorate division to enforce standards in both the public and private schools? How many personnel work in the Inspectorate Division of the State’s Ministry of Education and how well equipped are they? How many times do they visit schools? Once upon a time in this country, school inspectors were an important part of the education sector. They even inspected teachers’ notes, school facilities and engaged with students. I recall they used to time their visits to coincide with lunch time. They tasted the food too! During school hours, there was a task force that patrolled the streets. If you were of school age and you were found loitering around during school hours, you could be arrested! We now have a Universal Basic Education (UBEC) Law with strict provisions on school enrolment, including penalties for parents but nobody enforces any law anymore. Is it possible that the school inspectors of today collude with school proprietors and simply look the other way?

There has been a reference to the existence of a cult or a gang in Dowen College, as in many other schools. Is it possible that the school authorities do not know this? The school claims that there was no bullying or assault. Does the school have House Masters? And how diligent are those House Masters? There have been allegations that the owners of the school are opposed to the idea of a Parents Teachers’ Association (PTA), and so the school does not have one. Is that true? It would be most strange indeed if it were to be true. What kind of school would not have a forum for regular interaction between the school authorities and parents. And what kind of parent would patronise such a school? Even universities these days set up PTAs. The University of Lagos (UNILAG) has a vibrant PTA that gets involved in everything from students’ registration to hostel allocation and the welfare of students! Parents should be the most important stakeholders in the school system. The Dowen College investigating panel should look into this and other issues. By the way, has anyone set up a panel yet? What is the composition of the panel? What are its terms of reference? Who are the members? Who is the chairperson? The public needs to know. An investigating panel of civil servants will not pass the trust test, Mr Governor. And by the way, Dowen College has issued another statement dated December 4, which seems to have been written by a wiser person.

Now, let me return to our preliminary comment about how the school system in Nigeria has failed. What has happened to our schools is frightening. Reported cases are frightening enough but imagine the number of cases that have been swept under the carpet. The Oromoni case has resulted in a prodding of public memory in this regard. One, people have again remembered the case of Don Davis Archibong, a JSS 1 student of Deeper Life High School, Uyo, whose mother, Deborah Okezie, cried out to the High Heavens early this year, that her son was emaciated and had been a target of sodomy in a Christian school. Months later, the school principal, and four others, including the vice principal and housemasters, have now been charged for involvement in the starvation and sexual abuse of Don Archibong. They have been remanded in prison custody pending when they meet their bail conditions.

In January, when the story became public knowledge, Okezie alleged that her son contemplated suicide. She said her son was bullied by a teacher and some senior students in his school. The case has only now shown up in December! Two, there is also the case of Karen Aondoo Akpager, a JSS 2, 12-year-old boarding student of Premier Academy, Lugbe, Abuja, who died on June 22. She took ill in school and was unable to walk. When she was eventually rushed to the hospital by her mother, doctors observed a discharge from her vagina, and this was found to be from a condom in her private part. Her urine also revealed dead spermatozoa. She died. Who on earth slept with a 12-year-old student in a boarding school and left a condom in her body? Her parents have been asking for justice since June. Of course, Premier Academy also blamed the social media for misinforming the public and peddling “unfounded statements.”

Three, in Delta State this year, a SS3 student, Michael Ogbeise, was reported to have beaten a teacher at Erimu Secondary School in Abraka to death for flogging his sister, who was also a student in the same school. The teacher, Ezeugo Joseph, was beaten black and blue; he slipped into unconsciousness. He never recovered. This is a classic case of how even teachers in Nigerian schools are no longer safe. Four, before the Abraka incident, a final year student at the University of Ilorin, one Salaudeen Waliu Anuoluwa, was reportedly expelled for having the temerity to beat up a lecturer, one Mrs Rahmat Zakariyau of the Department of Microbiology. And five, in the last week of November, in the Asero area of Abeokuta, students of two secondary schools engaged themselves in a bloody fight. When the police from Obantoko moved in to ensure peace, the DPO was attacked and drenched in blood. And six, only yesterday, December 6, students of Idogbo Secondary School, Benin City, Edo State, disrupted school activities as they went on rampage. The school principal was said to have called in the Police. The students (secondary school students!) overpowered the police men, gave them a thorough beating and seized their uniforms. There are probably many more examples out there, but the aforementioned must be shocking enough. What kind of country runs a school system that breeds cultists and hooligans who readily overpower teachers, the system and the rule of law? A straightforward answer is that the Nigerian school system is a reflection of the entire society itself.

The government bullies the people, assaults their sensibilities daily, beats the people, cheats them, deceives them, and so the younger generation simply reproduces the same patterns. The real danger is that Nigeria’s youth society is proving to be worse than the adult society. There are no innocent children anymore, no safe havens either. A few years ago, a Pentecostal Church in Nigeria established a University and came up with the idea that any female student seeking admission into that Christian University must undergo a virginity test. We railed at the time against what looked like a discriminatory idea. The university stood its ground. But it didn’t take long before the idea died a natural death, as the university itself discovered the ugly truth that there was no point looking for a virgin in a thriving abortion clinic! A few years later, one University Vice Chancellor in Ghana protested that foreign students from Nigeria were introducing cultism to universities in Ghana. Children have a way of imitating their parents.

What must we do? Parents need to be vigilant. Many parents think of the education of their children in terms of cost and class. There are many useless schools across the country with fanciful names, and strong snob appeal. Parents send their children there just so they can be seen to belong to a certain class – the nouveaux riche. My son is in so, so and so school… the snobs know themselves and how much some of these schools cost per term… even if many of them are relying on bank loans and borrowings to maintain their fake lives. A school should be chosen for a different set of reasons: Standards, values, quality. State authorities must also be awake to their responsibilities in the areas of policy and regulation. There are policies, rules and laws in the books, but they are invoked only when there is a crisis. For the most part, nobody would remember that there are laws in Lagos State against cultism in schools or that the state has a Child Rights Law. It took the Don Davis Archibong incident in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State for the Magistrate Court to throw the law at the defendants.

The state must be more vigilant. The laws relating to violence, cultism, and child rights, are strong enough. It is just that nobody enforces them, because the will to do so is absent. Everybody knows everybody in Nigeria and so the right thing never gets done. In France, there are about 700,000 cases of bullying per annum in schools, resulting in social media humiliation and increased cases of suicide among adolescents. Last week, the French parliament decided to introduce stiffer legislation. The proposed law imposes a three-year jail term, and a maximum fine of €150,000 in most serious cases, on anyone who is found guilty of school bullying. The law was proposed by Education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer. It has been approved by the lower house. If it is adopted by the Senate in February 2022, it would be one of the harshest laws against school bullying in the world. Combatting bullying is also part of Brigitte Macron, a school teacher, and the French President’s wife’s area of focus. Jean-Michel Blanquer says the law is “a way of enforcing the values of the Republic.” What are the values of the Nigerian Republic? Do we know or agree on what those values are? How do we begin to enforce them? We can start with our troubled school system by confronting the ugly truths. Sylvester Oromoni, the father, has taken a useful step in that direction by engaging Femi Falana (SAN), to sue the school and demand a coroner’s inquest.

By Reuben Abati

Premium Times

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Nigerian breaks U.S varsity record

Nigerian scholar, Lanre Sanusi, has broken a five-year record at a United States varsity, Dallas Baptist University in Texas, after completing his Master’s programme in Business Administration (MBA) at the institution.

Sanusi broke a record, becoming the only Nigerian to have graduated from the great institution over the last five years, and with a fine result.

The Nigerian, a scholar, graduated with a 3.8 Cumulative Grade Points Average (CGPA) of the 4.0 obtainable mark set by the varsity for MBA students.

Sanusi, before now, had a Master’s degree in Accounting and Criminal Justice from the University of Texas.

He is also holds an associate degree holder from Tarrant County College, a Bachelor of Science from Texas varsity, and PhD in Law and Public Policy (In-view) from Northeast University in U.S.

Sanusi hails from Ijede in Ikorodu, and Amuwo-Odofin, and has contributed to the development of democracy in the country.

He has empowered youths, assist the needy, the aged, widows with his pet project, Apo Ariyo (Joyful groceries goodie pack). 

The Nation

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In observance of the first-ever ‘International Day to Protect Education from Attack’ on 9 September, The Stream is partnering with Witness to discuss a new documentary on the subject. Ahmad the Architect follows Ahmad Buba, a man on a mission to help his native Nigeria undo the harm caused by Boko Haram, an armed group that doesn’t believe in Western education, and for more than a decade has bombed schools, killed teachers and kidnapped students. The film focuses on Ahmad’s efforts to build twenty four boarding schools for orphans of the violence and fourteen mosques. According to UNICEF, the attendance rate in Northern Nigeria is roughly 53 percent. While Boko Haram is largely to blame for the lack of education, various other factors play into the abandonment of learning including lower value on the education of girls, joblessness and drug use. In this episode of The Stream, we discuss the efforts to fix Nigeria’s debilitated education system and efforts to revive the schools.

Mathematics teacher in Nigeria uses social media to ‘teach the whole world’

For many 12th graders, the closure of Nigeria’s public schools to combat the spread of COVID-19 presents a particular problem: How to prepare for crucial, final exams?

Basirat Olamide Ajayi, a math teacher in Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, came up with a solution. She began offering free mathematics classes online via Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram. And now, after almost six months, more than 1,800 students at various levels are taking her classes -- across Nigeria and even internationally.

Students watch her short math videos -- no more than 5 minutes long -- and respond to her questions. She will send them homework, and occasional assignments. And she grades them.

“Sometimes, I stay awake till 2 a.m. going through their assignments!” she said.

“COVID is here with both negative and positive impacts. The positive impact is that we can use technology to teach our students, which I am very, very happy about,” she said.

When Ajayi, 36, started her online classes, she solved math problems on camera on white sheets of paper. Then a parent saw how she was conducting the class and donated a whiteboard.

Her free classes are attracting students from all over Nigeria, and now students abroad are joining. A recent request came from Canada.

Ajayi says she is beginning to see herself as a global teacher.

“The online teaching has made me feel that I can actually teach the whole world mathematics,” she said. “On Twitter people see me all over the world, not only in Lagos, not only in Nigeria. They see me all over the world and that is enough to give me innermost joy.”

But not all students in Nigeria have easy access to her lessons.

“Some of them don’t even have data to access the class, and that is not giving me joy at all, as a teacher that wants students to be online,” she said. Ajayi said she pays for data for some of the students from her own pocket to allow them to be online.

Some students don’t even have phones; Ajayi encourages parents to share their phones.

Fortune Declan, 17, said Ajayi has made it easier for him to grasp mathematics.

“Originally when I started learning differentiation on my own it was kind of twitchy,” he said. “But when I joined the online maths platform, I started slow at first, but with the way my maths teacher was teaching, holding the sessions, I started learning differentiation rapidly.”

Her dedication is noteworthy, said Adedoyin Adesina, chairman of the Lagos arm of the Nigerian Union of Teachers.

“Teaching students virtually was a new experience to everybody,” he said. “There is the problem of slow internet, the cost of data and the uncooperative attitude of parents who were not familiar with what teachers are doing.”

Faced with the new challenges, Ajayi has shown real dedication, he said, especially as “she was not provided with money, data or any teaching material.”

Although she misses being in the classroom, Ahayi said she is gratified to be helping so many students: “The more I give, the more society will benefit from me and people can say ‘Mrs. Ajayi has done this to the whole world.’”


Hindustan Times

Nigerians land scholarships abroad. Now they are stranded as their government fails to pay the money

When Nigerian student Mercy Eyo landed a foreign postgraduate scholarship in July 2019, she had just lost her father. A year earlier, her mother had passed away.

She was elated about the prospect of starting a master's degree in global health care management at Coventry University, in the United Kingdom, with a scholarship from a Nigerian government agency.
"I was super excited ... I felt it was a consolation that would change my life forever," Eyo said.

"It was that one little time I had hope in the Nigerian dream," she told CNN, "because I wanted to return home afterward to offer what I had to the society."

Living hand-to-mouth
 
However, that dream has turned into a nightmare for Eyo who said she is now living a hand-to-mouth existence and awaiting scholarship funds that have failed to arrive 12 months later.

Eyo, from Bonny Island, southeastern Nigeria, is one of more than 200 students who landed a scholarship through Nigeria's Niger Delta Development Commission in 2019.

CNN has seen a scholarship letter dated July 29, email exchanges between her and the awarding body and scanned copies of the letters she sent to the commission in December 2019 requesting funds to process her travel arrangements.

She was told to make her way abroad and the money would later follow, but despite selling her laptops, phones and other valuable properties, Eyo wasn't able to raise her travel funds and visa processing fees and lost her place at the UK's Coventry University.

She remains in Nigeria with no signs of the funds promised to her.
"These are things that make me cry sometimes or feel depressed," Eyo told CNN.

Other scholarship students from Nigeria that CNN spoke to were able to make their way abroad. But they are also still waiting for the promised funds.

They told CNN that their emails and correspondence with the agency have been mostly ignored since September 2019.

The scholars are scattered in various universities across the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.

Andrew Saba is studying for a master's degree in public health at the University of Aberdeen.
"I don't know the worth of a Nigerian life to the people in power. I feel betrayed by Nigeria ... I can't understand how a country can abandon her brightest of minds in a foreign land. I can't relate to priorities of the country," said Saba.

"I am disappointed. It is supposed to be a joyful thing to get a scholarship from your country. Numerous countries give their citizens scholarship... but ours require extra activism to work. This is not how it should be."

The students said they are going through a lot of hardship due to a lack of funds and are unable to engage in menial jobs to survive because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Each masters' scholar is owed $30,000, while the PhD students are owed $90,000, which runs for the duration of their three-year program.

Others say they live on charity from family at home and friends abroad, while looking for new jobs to start paying their debts and bills.

Some of them have been told by their universities that their graduation isn't possible until their debts are paid.

In May, after growing pressure, the agency paid a "take-off" grant of around $1,290. This was an initial payment that was supposed to help the students with their initial visa processing and traveling costs last year.

Protests in UK 
 
Students recently held protests at the Nigerian High Commission Office in London. The protesters caught the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari who, on August 4, ordered the NDDC to immediately pay the outstanding sums owed to the students stranded across the globe.

The NDDC promised to pay the fees by the end of that week, adding that the death of the executive director of finance as well as the coronavirus pandemic was responsible for the delay in paying their fees.

"President Buhari ... has ordered that all stops be pulled to pay the students by the end of this week. We expect a new (executive director of finance) to be appointed this week. As soon as that is done, they would all be paid," the statement released on August 4 by Charles Odili, NDDC director of corporate affairs, said.

So far, none of the students CNN spoke to has received their outstanding payment.
CNN has contacted NDDC to find out why the payments to the students has still not been made two weeks after the President's order. The NDDC has not yet responded to the request for comment.

The scholarship program was developed to fund the study of marginalized young people from Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region in studies that could aid its development.

Despite accounting for 70% of Nigeria government revenue, the Niger Delta remains impoverished and faces numerous challenges such as oil spills, gas flares and vandalism.
The NDDC was established to drive the development of the region.

Corruption probe
 
The NDDC agency is currently embroiled in a multimillion-dollar corruption probe. Nigeria's President Buhari has ordered a forensic audit of the commission's activities from 2001 to 2019 after it was unable to account for around $209 million spent in less than a year.

Kemebradikumo Pondei, the acting managing director of NDDC last month appeared to faint while taking questions from Nigeria's lawmakers on how the agency spent around $100 million in the past few months.

While responding to questions on the students' scholarships and other incidents of unaccounted spending, he slumped, causing chaos in the room and forcing the investigative hearing to be stopped temporarily.

After the hearing the NDDC issued a statement saying that Pondei had been ill and had attended the hearing against his doctor's advice. Critics have suggested the incident was a ploy to thwart the probe.
It has not resumed since, although the agency was ordered to repay funds, according to local media reports.

Impact of pandemic
 
The events at the hearing have become the subject of memes and jokes among Nigerians.
But life is no joke for some of the students stranded abroad without the money promised for their fees and upkeep.

John Essien was a medical doctor in Nigeria and is now studying a for a master's in health economics and health policy at the University of Birmingham in the UK.

Essien said he sold properties and took loans to fund his overseas travel after delays in securing his scholarship money before he left Nigeria in September 2019.

"I knew previous scholars faced delays in getting paid. But I wasn't expecting it to exceed three months. When it did, I realized I wasn't prepared for what was to come," he told CNN.

Three months of waiting passed and his debts rose, Essien said. He was forced to rely on friends for money to eat and pay his rent.

In December 2019 he got a part-time job as a dishwasher with a company in Birmingham.

At various points, he said he has worked as a receptionist, porter, carpenter, bartender, and crowd control officer at Premier League soccer match venues.

Essien said he has been in contact with the other Nigerian students who received scholarships from the NDDC.

They all have tales of severe hardship. One of the students contracted Covid-19 while working as a carer in a home, another one has also had access to the school's student portals blocked for non-payment of fees.

Essien said this month he narrowly escaped eviction from his apartment after missing his payment deadline by more than 20 days.

The huge economic impact of the pandemic also means that his former means of income have dried up. "With less than one pound in my account, how do I continue begging around? Why should I deal with this kind of mental pressure?" he asked.

CNN

Video - 38% of Nigerian children miss out on primary schooling

Nigeria has one the highest rates of out-of-school children globally. UNICEF says that about 4 out of 10 primary age children are not accessing basic education. CGTN's Deji Badmus reports on the situation at one school, on the outskirts of the capital Abuja.