Scholars have called for the protection of the rights of Nigerians living abroad.
This was in reaction to the news that some Nigerian students of Teesside University were facing deportation from the UK due to non-payment of fees.
Specifically on May 22, 2024, in a report by BBC, some Nigerian students carrying placards were demonstrating against Teesside University, just one of the many universities in the UK that were forcing Nigerian students to return home.
However, according to Prof. Babafemi Badejo of Chrisland University, Ogun State, this developing and worsening situation of throwing students off their respective courses, and reporting to the British Home Office for deportation, is not unique to Teesside University.
He criticised that many UK universities that had benefitted enormously at the height of the “japa” syndrome were now causing the Home Office to deport Nigerian students after they defaulted in the payment of fees.
Badejo explained that historically, Nigerian students had not been habitual tuition debt defaulters.
He added, “However, Nigerian students fell on bad times after the unparalleled devaluation of the Nigerian currency by about 300 per cent as the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration began in Nigeria about a year ago. The naira values respective students had stashed up from sales of personal or family properties or parental earnings could no longer meet the needs of external obligations for the payment of tuition fees.”
Badejo, however, called on the Nigerian diplomatic and consular to intensify efforts in protecting the rights of Nigerians living abroad.
“The Nigerian diplomatic and consular efforts need to be more activist in protecting the rights of Nigerians outside our shores. Some of the Teesside University students could use such assistance to secure their respective certificates that were almost earned when they defaulted. The ease with which Nigerians are being subjected to deportation pressures and actual removal should be a basis for negotiations by our diplomats. To claim that nothing can be done once a report has been made to the Home Office impugns the involvement of Nigeria in protecting its citizens. We should not only remember that we have a diaspora only when calculating annual remittances,” he said.
He proposed that significant investment in Nigeria’s education sector was crucial, saying this included upgrading infrastructure, enhancing teacher training, and developing a robust curriculum that meets global standards as well as boosting the emoluments being paid to academics, to retain more of the available capacities.
Badejo added that in this regard, policies that would create attractive job opportunities for graduates within Nigeria to reduce the incentive to emigrate should be adopted.
He maintained that “Forming partnerships with foreign institutions to facilitate knowledge transfer and collaborative programs that allow students to gain international exposure without leaving the country permanently would be a welcomed development, after all, Nigeria in my student days attracted brains from around the world as students and teachers.”
Head of Department, Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Prof. Poju Tejumaiye, lamented that the action of British Institutions showed that they were more concerned about money from foreign students.
“While I agree that our economy is not doing well, it should not be used as a precondition to send the students out. What happened to work-study? What happened to scholarships. Albeit, it clearly showed that British institutions depend more on money from foreign students than looking inward on how to generate money. This no doubt is a lazy or defeatist approach to education,” Tejumaiye said.
Dr Dele Ashiru, also of UNILAG, added, “What is happening to the students is the manifestation of long years of neglect in the education system which has sentenced Nigerian students to education tourism. The government should therefore invest heavily in the Nigerian University System to discourage the need to go abroad for studies in the first place.”
A recent report by The PUNCH said the Federal Government had intervened in Teesside University Deportation Issue.
It said, “A delegation led by Ambassador Christian Okeke from the Nigerian Embassy in the UK, accompanied by leaders of the Nigerian Students Union in the UK, will engage in discussions with the university’s management to seek a resolution.
“This decision comes after a virtual meeting convened by the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa. Attendees included Ambassador Okeke, President of the Nigerian Students Union UK, Yemi Soile, and several affected students. The meeting took place on Sunday.”