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Tag: Nigerian Students

  • Nigerian students to renew visa without interview – US Embassy

    Nigerian students to renew visa without interview – US Embassy

    The United States Embassy in Nigeria has said that Nigerian students currently studying in the US may be eligible to renew their student visas without an interview.

    This was made known in a statement issued on the embassy’s website on Thursday, April 21.

    The statement read in part, “If you are currently studying in the United States, you may be eligible to renew your student visa without an interview when you return to Nigeria this summer.

    “To qualify for this procedure, you must be physically in Nigeria renewing a student visa that is still valid or has expired within the past 24 months and are renewing your visa either to: (a) continue participation in the same major course of study even if at a different institution; or (b) attend the same institution even if in a different major course of study.”

  • NAUS appeals to FG, ASUU to return to the negotiating table

    NAUS appeals to FG, ASUU to return to the negotiating table

    “We want to use this press conference to appeal to the government again, to consider the plights of many of our members who have been affected seriously by this strike, and to also plead with the Federal Government to revisit its position on ASUU and the need for both parties to return to the negotiating table so that all of the issues can be resolved once and for all.”

     

    These were the words of students under the aegis of the National Association of University Students, NAUS, Osun Campus Monitoring Committee, while urging the Federal Government and striking lecturers to return to the negotiation table and resolve the ongoing crisis.

     

    In a press statement released by NAUS on Friday, signed by its Chairman, Secretary-General, and Publicity Secretary; Eruobami Ayobami, Olaniyan Saleem, and Lawal Idris, respectively, made available to our correspondent, the student body bemoaned the continued closure of schools following the strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

     

    It said the strike which was already over 60 days was beginning to take a negative turn on students, particularly now that they seemed not to know when the challenge was coming to an end.

     

    The statement read in parts, “In view of the prolonged nature of the strike, it is beginning to take a negative turn on our students, particularly now that we all seem not to know when this challenge is going to finally come to an end.

     

    “We believe that if the government is concerned about the deplorable education system in Nigeria, it won’t have any problems implementing the agreement they freely entered with the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

     

    NAUS stated that, in its previous statement on March 21, it had called the attention of the government to the issues affecting Nigerian students.

     

    It said further, “we had expected that between then and now, something tangible would have been done by government or its agencies to assuage the strike but alas, Government doesn’t think it’s important to resolve the problems over 60 days since the strike started! We, therefore, want to reiterate that as an association, we have vowed not to go mute/or be silent until the necessary actions are taken.

     

    “We state unequivocally that ASUU’s demands are correct and we do believe it’s for the progress and stability of our university system. For us, we do not see where the following demands by the academic staff union are faulty.

     

    “The Integrated Personnel and Payrolls Information System (IPPIS) developed the government to pay civil servants and strangely Academic staff has since shown failures and even causing major challenge within the university system. Even, the Government, recently, in the national dailies, reported that the IPPIS software was hacked! That is a major revelation of the weakness of that platform as a payment system, government should rather embrace the UTAS payment system that ASUU developed.”

     

    The student body also called on the government to pay the allowances owed to the lecturers and to equally lift the dying infrastructures on campuses to meet the 21st-century standards.

     

    It concluded, “We are begging all the players involved in this matter to shield their swords for the sake of education and our future.

     

    “Please, let a stop be to all the mischief and hanky-panky that have continued to draw us back as a nation. This is what the Nigerian university students want.”

  • War :Scores of Nigerian students stranded in Ukraine

    War :Scores of Nigerian students stranded in Ukraine

    Lolade Lawal’s life has been turned upside down in a way she never imagined.

    The third-year medical student from Nigeria is coming to terms with the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that started last week.

    “It is scary, very scary. I’m very worried. People are running for their lives. We are hiding in groups so we can keep an eye on each other,” Lawal told Al Jazeera over the phone as she sheltered with other students at a safe bunker in the northeastern city of Sumy.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered what he said was a “special military operation” against Ukraine on Thursday. A full-scale invasion followed, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declaring martial law, saying his country would defend itself.

    On Saturday, fighting reached the streets of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv as Russian troops pressed ahead.

    According to the US military, Russia now has at least 50 percent of its estimated 150,000-strong invasion forces in Ukraine.

    The conflict has so far killed more than 200 civilians, including three children. Nearly 1,100 have been injured in the conflict, including 33 children, according to Ukraine’s health ministry.

    The United Nations estimates more than 100,000 people have been displaced within the country since the conflict started.

    “There’s no escape. Trains have stopped working. Most supermarkets are closed and those that are opened are running very low on food stocks. ATMs are not working and everyone is desperately looking for money,” Lawal said, as sirens went off in the background.

    There are no official figures on the number of African students currently studying in Ukraine but Lawal said “there are hundreds of us in our city”.

    “At my university, there are about 100 Nigerian students. I’m sheltering with some of them,” Lawal added.

    Some students have managed to cross the border into Poland.

    “I live in Kyiv. I have been living here since March last year,” Somto Orah, a student at State University of Telecommunications in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.

    “We have received no support from any government authorities. The school only gave us bomb shelter to hide when the air raid siren is on. The sirens came on and off for about five times yesterday before I left,” Orah, a Nigerian national, added.

    “There is little food. I couldn’t access cash for two days now. Every ATM on the road has no cash.”

    Others have had even less luck.

    Samuel George, a first-year software engineering student, fled Kyiv after the shelling and sirens got too much for him to handle.

    “I drove from Kyiv. We are trying to survive. We don’t want to die in a foreign country,” George said.

    As he neared the Polish border, Samuel’s luck ran out. He said he had a minor road accident with a vehicle carrying Ukrainians because the road was narrow.

    He said they took his money and stopped him from driving any further.

    “They are not officials, police or military. They are normal citizens who stopped us Africans from driving to the border. They let Ukrainians pass through but not us,” George said.

    “I’m now walking to the border. I have no other option. I don’t know how much further the border is. They even took our money. It is like they are not human beings,” George said, adding that he could no longer talk on the phone because his hands were freezing in the sub-zero temperature.

    On Saturday, the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs said more than 115,000 people had crossed into Poland from Ukraine, adding that everyone from Ukraine was allowed to enter, even those without a valid passport.

    But for Somto and several other students, crossing the border into Poland has not been easy.

    “I will be heading to Nigeria from Poland if I’m able to cross. But if I see a school offer around Schengen, I will take it up because I don’t want my school life to be disrupted,”

    he said as he joined the queue at the border gate.

  • Nigerian Students to be evacuated from Ukraine if Russia attacks – NIDCOM

    Nigerian Students to be evacuated from Ukraine if Russia attacks – NIDCOM

    The world is watching as the drum beats of war intensify pitching the United States (US) and its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies in a grim faceoff with Russia over the alleged threat of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Although some Nigerian experts have dismissed the possibility of all out war, they however, advised the Federal Government and major stakeholders to begin to make arrangements for a possible evacuation of Nigerians from Ukraine.

    Russia has in the last three weeks massed nearly 100,000 troops around its borders with Ukraine, a move which the US and its NATO allies perceived as Russia’s intentions to invade Ukraine in much the same way it invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014.

    Although Russia has denied any plans for invasion and scaled down its troops presence in the disputed area, the US and allies have mobilized military contingents in Eastern Europe in readiness to counter Russia’s move as stated by US President Joe Biden.

    The trouble in Eastern Ukraine where Russia is said to be backing separatists’ agitation has killed over 14,000 since 2004 and perhaps constitutes major concerns for Nigerians especially students in the event of an outbreak of war.

    The Nigerian government through the Nigerians In the Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) last week issued an advisory to Nigerians resident in Ukraine to remain calm and security conscious, but experts have called for evacuation now as many other countries have advised their nationals to leave the country.

    International Constitutional law expert, Livingstone Wechie said that “If very developed nations like the US have given their citizens an ultimatum to leave Ukraine within 48 hours, they have seen the red light that there is likelihood of attacks by Russia, which will affect the safety of every person. So, the safest thing is to ensure that citizens of nations like Nigeria which has a large population of students there are evacuated

    “Remember, Ukraine is like an education tourist centre for Nigerian students. Many Nigerian students are there and the borders of Ukraine have been shutdown, their airspaces are being monitored. So, it calls for concern and it is important for the Nigerian Government to make arrangements to evacuate its citizens as there is already a psychological war,” he added.

    He however, ruled out all out war, stressing that the US is possibly negotiating with Russia. He said that the shouts of war are pure propaganda by the US and allies to extract economic benefits from the Ukrainian debacle.

    “What you are seeing now is a pure economic war. Ukraine is looking at an ethnic battle to save itself but the intervening states are harping into economic opportunities to advance their control and influence in the region. The US has never intervened in anything that does not give her economic benefits. So, no gunshots will be fired.

  • Gloomy days ahead for Nigerian students as ASUU insists on another strike after expiration of three-week ultimatum to FG

    Gloomy days ahead for Nigerian students as ASUU insists on another strike after expiration of three-week ultimatum to FG

    Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have threatened to embark on another industrial action following a three-week ultimatum issued by the union last month.

    They, however, called on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Federal Government to honour the agreement reached with the union.

    The lecturers made the call on Friday at separate briefings held in the northern and southern parts of the country where they said the government’s action has left them with no other option than to withdraw their services.

    At the end of a meeting of the Ibadan Zone of ASUU held at the University of Ilorin, the zonal coordinator, Professor Oyebamiji Oyegoke, said the union has been pushed to the wall over the non-implementation of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) reached with the government in 2020.

    He explained that the union was planning another strike because of the failure to fully implement the MoA.

    “Government, by its piecemeal implementation of the contentious issues in the MoA of 2020, is not sincere in fulfilling its part of the agreement,” said the don. “Selective treatment of issues in dispute instead of a comprehensive approach will no longer be acceptable to our members; we shall no longer take the issue of welfare of our members for granted.

    “Any treatment of MoA of 2020 that precludes its full implementation and rejection of IPPIS will be incomplete. If it has taken ASUU’s position of resuming a suspended strike action to rouse the government from its sleep of non-implementation of the MoA of 2020, one needs to ask, how many of such reminders should ASUU give before its demands are met?

    “It is on the basis of the failure of government to meet up with the promises made as attested to in the MoA of 2020 that the union is calling on Nigerians to intervene at this critical moment. The demands of the union are realistic and holistic in the common interest of the country’s educational and developmental pursuits. If nothing is done, we will be left with no other choice than to withdraw our services until reason prevails.”

    Professor Oyegoke stated that the agreement was supposed to address the issues of revitalisation of public universities, full payment of the academic earned allowance, withheld salaries and promotion arrears, inconsistencies in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) payment, and renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.

    He accused the government of demonstrating an intention to embarrass the collective resolve to save university education from total collapse.

    “ASUU cannot succumb to this insensitive disposition,” the lecturer stated. “As we celebrate Human Rights Day today, 10th December, we recall the declaration of 1948 which acknowledged the struggles of the oppressed people around the world.

    “So, we use this opportunity to ask the Nigerian government to respect the rights of the people to education and decent working conditions.”

  • FG insists: Decision on exclusion of Nigerian students from 2020 WASSCE final

    FG insists: Decision on exclusion of Nigerian students from 2020 WASSCE final

    The Federal Government on Wednesday said it would not yet reverse its decision not to reopen schools to allow SS 3 students participate in the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations, WASSCE.

    There had been outcry and condemnation since the Nigerian government announced that SS 3 students would not take part in this year’s WASSCE in order to avert the spread of Coronavirus.

    Minister of State for Education, Chief Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, after the Virtual Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting on Wednesday said the position remained unchanged.

    The minister said the Ministry was still consulting with education stakeholders on what the best position should be, adding the West African Examination Council (WAEC) had also started consultations with West African nations on a possibility of shifting dates.

    According to him, government was still meeting with parents over the decision of the Ministry, adding that what the Minister said reflected the true position of the Ministry

    “We are not confident yet that everywhere is safe, the numbers from the NCDC are still alarming and we have put this before parents and all the stakeholders in the the Education ecosystem, we are still meeting with them. In fact, there’s a stakeholders’ meeting convened for Monday,” he said.

    Nwajiuba said WAEC on its own part was also negotiating with other West African countries to look at possible shift in date.

    He said once they were through with that meeting and that hopefully when government was through with the consultation with stakeholders, if there was any change in the Ministry’s position, it would be communicated.

    ”But as it stands, the position of the Honourable Minister, as communicated to you last week, remains the position of the Ministry until further evidence to the contrary or further agreements that may alter those arise,” Nwajiuba said.

  • Nigerian students doing excellently well in Australian universities – Official

    The Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Paul Lehmann, on Tuesday expressed the readiness of various Australian universities and colleges to admit more young Nigerians into their institutions.

    Lehmann told newsmen in Lagos that Nigerians were doing ‘excellently well’ in their fields of studies in different Australian colleges and universities.

    The high commissioner said that his government and the authorities of the colleges and universities were particularly impressed with the performances of Nigerians in their institutions of higher education.

    “We have a number of universities and colleges in Australia that are today among the top 50 universities and colleges in the world.

    “And over the last three years, we have seen remarkable growth in the number of Nigerian students currently studying in our different universities and colleges.

    “Let me say that Nigerian students in different universities and colleges in Australia are doing exceptionally well in their chosen courses. And we are so happy to announce this,’’ he said.

    According to him, there is currently a growing interest of more young Nigerians wanting to study in Australia.

    Lehmann said that the growing interest of more Nigerians in Australian universities and colleges was not unconnected with the institutions’ teaching system, high level research and learning facilities.

    The Australian Representative in Nigeria said that his High Commission had recently brought a delegation of 18 Australian colleges and universities to an Education Fair at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos.

    “We just organised an Education Fair in Lagos. The Fair was designed to showcase the opportunities in Australian universities and colleges to prospective Nigerian students.

    “This Education Fair has afforded more young Nigerians the opportunity to interact directly with representatives of Australian universities and colleges.

    “For us, the fair was a confidence building measure where more Nigerians could interact with our institutions, and make their informed choices,’’ he added.

     

     

    NAN