Nigerian students and state governments have continued to pay through their nose to study in foreign universities. But the universities have adopted various strategies to meek the applicants.
The latest victim is a state in the South-West state, which LEADERSHIPWEEKEND gathered paid $50,000 to an official of the Ukrainian Embassy in Abuja to facilitate visa application for about 122 students from the state university to study in a Ukrainian university.
It was learnt that last August, the state governor wrote a letter to the consular, Embassy of Ukraine in Abuja, of his plans to send the medical students of the state university to the university in Ukraine for the completion of their course.
LEADERSHIP WEEKEND learnt that the state government took the measure because the National Universities Commission (NUC) is yet to accredit the state university to graduate students in medicine.
The governor had in the letter asked a senior official at the embassy and his assistant to visit the state for the processing of the visas to reduce costs and other logistics problems arising from sending the students and officials to Abuja.?
He pledged that the state government would make arrangements for the transportation, accommodation and security of the consular team.
But the embassy allegedly turned down the request, insisting that all the students and their officials come to Abuja for screening before they would be given visas to travel to Ukraine.
When LEADERSHIP WEEKEND contacted the Consular, who was identified as Nikolay, he simply said: “The issue of student visa applicants from that state are not to be discussed in the media. I deserve the right to speak or not to speak to the media on issues involving the embassy. The matter is not for public consumption.”
LEADERSHIP WEEKEND gathered that on October 16 and 17, 2012, an interview was conducted by the embassy in Abuja in two batches for the students, after which the embassy informed the state officials that only 47 applicants were qualified for the visas and rejected the over 60 per cent of the applicants for over age, incorrect documentation and non-availability of space in the chosen university.
Later, all the applicants were cleared through the back door, LEADERSHIP WEEKEND learnt. Our source disclosed that the students are now set to travel to Ukraine for their studies. The state government, it was learnt gave $50,000 as bribe to the embassy to ensure that all the students were cleared for the programme.
The state government allegedly paid the money through its coordinator to the private account of an official at the embassy.
Information available to LEADERSHIP WEEKEND reveals that after the interview, an official of the university directed the state coordinator of the project to bring the sum of $50,000, which is to be paid into an account, belonging to an embassy official in Ukraine. ??