Nigerian students study in one-block, portakabin Ghanaian varsities (2)

One-block Mahatma Ghandi University, Ghana

In this second part of a tripartite series, TEMITAYO FAMUTIMI reveals how Nigerian students are lured into one-block and affiliate Ghanaian universities where they pay in American dollars

Founded some six years ago, Evangelical Presbyterian University College prides itself as the premier university of the Volta Region of the Republic of Ghana. Sited in Ho, the capital city of the region, the privately-funded cum faith-based university occupies a land area less than three plots.

With three buildings – a two-storey and two one-storey structures – the institution which boasts  a professor, an associate professor and two doctorate degree holders on its academic staff list,  awards first degrees in affiliation to the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and Eden Theology Seminary, United States.

Checks at the admissions office of EPCU, which is duly accredited by the National Accreditation Board of the Ghana Ministry of Education, shows that over 1, 500 students, including Nigerians, are pursuing first degree programmes in Accounting and Finance; Marketing; Credit Management and Finance; Human Resource Management and Organisational Development; Agribusiness, Theology and two other disciplines.

A visit to the EPCU library, however, shows that it could only accommodate 24 students at a time. Although the university authorities say it has yet to inaugurate an aggressive marketing strategy, nine of its 11 foreign students are Nigerians.

The EPCU President (equivalent of a Vice-Chancellor), Dr. Cyril Fayose, a Ghanaian, agrees with our correspondent that the institution is a “makeshift campus.”  He says the university’s drive to attract Nigerian students has begun in earnest in spite of the facilities on the ground.

“This location is a kind of makeshift or start-up campus. The university was founded by the church and the buildings belong to it. We are a very young university but we have great ambitions. Nigeria is a big guy in the West African sub-region. So if you talk of numbers that is where you go to first. We are just beginning to explore the Nigerian market,” Fayose explains.

To actualise its plans to buy into the huge population of Nigerians desperate to secure university admission outside the country, the management of EPCU participated in an education fair which held in Lekki, Lagos, in the first week of November.

“The Nigerians we have as students either came here themselves or they know someone who brought them here. The November fair we participated in is an attempt by the university to go to Nigeria and we did send people there to advertise the university and  let the Nigerian public know that there is a university here that will help them further their studies,” Fayose says.

How Nigerian students are recruited

Armed with a whole array of agents in Nigeria who conduct education fairs, road shows – alongside master piece websites and a well functional social media presence, especially Facebook and Twitter  - these universities get the attention of Nigerian students who are often disappointed with the country’s education system.

The situation is such that institutions like Accra Institute of Technology, operating from one-block buildings,  have the largest population of the official 110,000 Nigerian students studying in Ghana.

Dotting the Ghanaian landscape, these private universities compete with one another for space as well as the attention of foreign students,  especially Nigerians,  as they set up campuses under different names. The majority of them,  irrespective of where they are situated,  usually have city campuses alongside other campuses spread across the country.

Confirming the desperation of Nigerians for university education in Ghana, Registrar of AIT, Mr. Dominic Osei-Boakye, says, “When it comes to university education Nigerians are more ambitious. Surprisingly you will see a 16-year-old girl who leaves Nigeria for Ghana all by herself to school. They are highly ambitious and an average Nigerian parent has the confidence that their 16-year-old child will behave well here (in Ghana) and apply their ambition in the positive way.”

Explaining how the institution recruits Nigerian students, Osei-Boakye, says he has been to Lagos, Port Harcourt and other major cities in the country with a view to enrolling them. He notes that the institution has also begun to leverage the use of social networking sites as an inexpensive way of reaching out to prospective Nigerian students.

“We go around the country and you know our website is there too. Now we are planning to do one or two things on nairaland.com  (a popular online forum) while we also make use of our YouTube page and other social media,” he adds.

Mrs. Daughter Duba, who hails from Bayelsa State,  is one of the numerous agents who specialises in recruiting Nigerians to universities in Ghana. A National Certificate of Education holder, Duba, who is  married to a Ghanaian,  says she recruits at each academic session, an average of 10 students to Ghanaian  universities.

Duba operates from two offices, one in Yenagoa and the other one in Accra, Ghana under the business name Fresh Mind International Educational Consultancy.  According to her, some of the institutions for which she recruits pay her commission for the job done, while all the parents or guardians who consult her pay her a fee of between N100,000 and N250,000 for helping a child or ward with the admission process.

“I started out with this consultancy work in 2000 and the parents of the first set of students I recruited  into universities in Ghana were at that time tired of the lingering strike embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

“My first recruits were students of the University of Calabar. Ever since, I have helped to recruit tens of students into both public and private Ghanaian universities,  including those seeking postgraduate admission. The services I render apart from securing them an admission spot includes receiving them at the airport and the bus stations whenever they want to resume, ” Duba says.

She, however, raises the alarm that there were a lot of universities, though certified, that are far below the standards which obtain in Nigeria.

“Whenever I am specifically asked to help facilitate admission into some of these universities operating in one-block apartments, I reject such consultancy jobs and educate parents on  why I take such stance. If such parents fail to reason along and insist on sending their children or wards there, I hands off such consultancy work.

“Lack of information as well as the relatively low fees usually makes some Nigerian parents send their children to these small, small one-block universities. In the event that I am unable to secure admission for a child in the public institutions, I ensure that the private universities I approach are those that are affiliated to the well-established government universities,” Duba adds.

Distraught with the Nigerian system

“I don’t miss anything about Nigeria. What sort of country will not provide opportunities for her young citizens to further their education and achieve their dreams? What do I get to enjoy in Nigeria. Is it the epileptic power supply or the bad roads which transverse the length and breadth of the country,” 16-year-old Alonge Onikepo, a first year student of Ghana Christian University College,  laments.

“Although my sponsors who happen to be my parents pay in dollars, the truth is that they are not millionaires. They are sacrificing a lot to get my fees paid just to get me have the opportunity of university education.

“I was denied admission to the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho; University of Ibadan and Osun State University, Osogbo. My admission was quite easy here and I didn’t have to bribe my way before being admitted to this school,” Onikepo, a studeny of Development Management and Public Health of the institution adds.

While Onikepe sought admission for a little over one year before taking refuge in Ghana,  25- year-old Noro Bature, a native of Jos, Plateau State, studying Non Governmental Organisation  Management in the same institution, wasn’t that lucky.

For six years, she applied for admission into various universities in the country,  including the University of Maiduguri; University of Abuja, University of Jos and the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi before settling down for a Ghanaian university.

“It’s saddening that back home in Nigeria, there are no ample opportunities for us to study. I was qualified and even had good grades at Senior School Certificate level. Despite even knowing a few big wigs, getting university admission in Nigeria was a nightmare for the six years I applied in different universities. Apart from being expensive, studying far away from home is not all on a bed of roses,” Bature says.

Asked if she is not bothered by the status of GCUC which is affiliated to the University of Development Studies, Tamale, the third year student of the institution says, “Once in a while, I get bothered about this but the university authorities often tell us that UDS is a good public university and we also get assurances that our certificates are not inferior.”

Stranded in a foreign land

While the notion is that only rich Nigerians send their wards and children abroad for studies, findings by this correspondent reveals that some parents and guardians crave foreign schools for their kids despite being financially handicapped.

When this correspondent visited the Ghana Christian University College, the official in charge of international students was overheard threatening to eject a first year Nigerian undergraduate named Bassey from the institution’s hall of residence.

“That Bassey girl has not paid a dime of her fees since she was admitted and each time I speak with her parents on the telephone they keep begging for more time. How do we place that? I will eject her from the hostel today. In fact, I will shock her,” the official who visited the institution’s advancement office, where this correspondent was seated,  threatens.

Investigations by this correspondent revealed that the parents of Bassey,  who hails from Akwa Ibom State,  enrolled her in the school after unsuccessful attempts to secure her admission in the University of Calabar and University of Uyo.

The 20-year-old whose fees for the first semester is $1,771 (N301, 070) explains that her dad put her in the school after she got the admission without “stress” with the hope that payments would be made after a few weeks of resumption.

“My father had lost his job before I got the admission. But he had been trying to make ends meet with a view to paying my school fees. Unfortunately, he had an accident and he is at present on the hospital bed.

“My mother who happens to be a petty trader has managed to send me N20,000 since I resumed here. I have been living from hand to mouth and in fact it has been my friends who have been feeding me,” Bassey explains as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“This development has greatly affected me and I have not been doing well in my tests and class assignments. That I am confused is to say the least. My greatest fear is that I may be forced to drop out of the school by the authorities due to the unpaid fees,” she adds.

The Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, Ambassador Ademola Onafowokan, in a chat with our correspondent, confirmed cases of Nigerians who get stranded in Ghana after being unable to pay up their fees abound.

Onafowokan says, “I have helped on two occasions to pay school fees of Nigerians I don’t know in Ghanaian universities – on my own account. They were in dire straight. One was in his final year, while the other was on the verge of writing semester examinations and had just one week to pay up.

“While one was in a public university the other was in a private institution. The first one, I paid $2,000 and for the second I paid close to $2,000. These are private affairs and were from sheer acts of mercy as a human being. But how many students will one have to pay for.”

He advises that parents who chose to send their  children abroad to study should be well prepared to foot their fees rather than allow them to suffer in foreign land.

“People can go anywhere to seek education, if you have the money,  why not.  But if somebody has chosen to send his or her children abroad, I think he or she should be prepared for it.”

Threat of harassment

The Ghanaian authorities have introduced a national ID card registration system as well as a compulsory application for resident permit for all categories of foreigners in the West African nation. The two documentations cost $120 (N20, 400) and $80 (N13, 600) respectively.

The authorities in Ghana have already started  what they call an “enforcement” drive to move against those who have yet to pay the required fees and register for the schemes.

A text message sent to a student of Valley View University, Dodowa, by the National Identification Authority of Ghana reads, “Reminder: Register for the non-citizen ID card now. Ignore if already registered. Enforcement has started.”

However,  Nigerians resident in Ghana, especially students,  have cried foul over this development,  with many of them expressing concerns over an imminent clampdown.

A first year student of Radford University College, East Legon, Paul Daniel, says the introduction of the two schemes was primarily targeted at Nigerians, especially student who  according to him “flood” Ghana.

He says the scheme is one of such ways of raking money off Nigeria students,  adding that the bulk of the blame for the added burden should be put on successive administrations in Nigeria who failed to provide educational opportunities for the citizenry.

The former student of the Federal University of Technology Owerri adds, “In fact, the Nigerian government should be ashamed of itself.  Ghana is already an higher education destination for thousands of Nigerians and the introduction of the compulsory non-citizen ID card and resident permit, which costs N30,400,  shows the exploitation we are being exposed to  and it appears to me that they are mocking us.

“Who asks them (Ghanaians) for such in Nigeria? Don’t get me wrong. It’s actually a brilliant idea to get documented in a foreign land but the amount is outrageous as it has simply turned to a money-making venture and Nigerians are the most affected.”

We will resolve the matter

The Nigerian diplomatic mission to Ghana says it is not unaware of the  demands of the Ghanaian authorities, noting that it is feeling the pulse and bitterness of Nigerians as to the development.

Says Onafowokan, “I have met the foreign minister of Ghana and she said it is not within her purview. I have discussed it at every fora I find myself. I have written to Nigeria on the matter. Why pay for identification as well as resident permit separately.

“I don’t think Ghanaians and other foreign nationals pay that in Nigeria. And I don’t see why Nigerians should be asked to pay that money. But I believe in negotiation. And I think the Federal Government of Nigeria will invariably discuss that with the Ghanaian government. And the issue will be resolved in the spirit of brotherhood.”