Alltimepost.com investigation, By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku
The University of Benin (UNIBEN) student work/study program, resuscitated by the Prof Lilian Salami administration is in dire need of funds.
The UNIBEN work-study program is designed to provide short term employment for extra income to the indigent and financially challenged student in the course of their study in the university.
It focusses on second year students who are required to apply for assistance by filling a form through their heads of departments. There are reports in the media, especially from EFCC arrests that indicate that apart from being Yahoo-Yahoo boys and girls by night and being students by day, most students engage in all kinds of odd enterprises to finance their studies.
While it is common for many undergraduate female students of Nigerian tertiary institutions, to go off campus and sell their bodies to eke a living, a very small minority is unwilling to take that route. Thus, driven to the wall, some students go to the extremes to survive.
There was a case reported by The Cable newspaper, titled: People Mock Me for working at a construction site, says female UNIBEN student, published May 7, 2021.
In that report, Jennifer Efemoghe, a 200-level student studying finance at the institution, narrated how friends mocked her for working at a construction site to meet her basic needs.
Efemoghe said that rather than sleep around with men, she decided to carry heavy blocks, granite and sand to the third floor of a construction building, to take care of her immediate needs and support her parents.
Efemoghe recounted how the Federal Government of Nigeria eventually gave her a scholarship.
“After my story was published, I got a call from the personal assistant of Mr. Sunday Dare, Minister of Youth and Sports Development.
“After they verified that I am indeed a UNIBEN student, the Minister gave me a full scholarship up to my final year – meaning that the Federal government paid my tuition, accommodation and book expenses,” Efemoghe, a Benin indigene told Alltimepost.com.
Apart from the scholarship offered her by the Federal government of Nigeria, other well-meaning people abroad have put in something for Efemoghe as well. The BBC pidgin service also did a documentary on her.
UNIBEN authorities did something about the Cable and BBC report. Prof Lilian Salami, VC of UNIBEN resuscitated a work-study program, initiated in the late 80s. During the tenures of some of Prof Lilian’s predecessors, Alltimepost.com found out that they gave part-time employment to indigent students.
Some of such work study programs beneficiaries, were the student bus conductors who worked on UNIBEN intra and inter-campus buses shuttling from department to department and between Ugbowo and Ekewan campuses.
They were paid through the bursary department and were regulated so as not to spend all of their time working at the expense of their studies.
Sources told Alltimepost.com that Prof Salami plans to tackle issues of student hardship from a two-pronged approach: one, ‘qualified’ indigent students who scale through a screening process will work within the campus at designated and regulated times as clerical and administrative assistants.
The second group will be seconded as interns to reputable industries, companies and organizations. That way, they gain valuable work ethics and values so as to be easily absorbed into the labor market.
Our investigation revealed that there are as many as 500-1000 students struggling to make ends meet in UNIBEN. But not every indigent student in UNIBEN struggling to survive has been an Efemoghe.
Alltimepost.com visited the Office of the Student Work Study Program close to the Faculty of Education building. We met an official interviewing a female applicant, also desperately in need.
So as not to breach their rules and protocols of engagement with the students, the officials did not allow an interview with her.
There are indications though that the UNIBEN’s plan to assist its struggling students on or off campus may not take off. Unlike its previous work-study programs that were said to be funded by the Federal government, this one has a major challenge – the lack of funds to drive the program.
Chairperson of the UNIBEN work study program, Prof Gideon Emelue, said that there are no funds and no donations that have come from kind-hearted individuals, corporate establishments or multinationals.
“Our VC welcomes anyone out there willing to support UNIBEN work study program to assist our financially-challenged students. She is very passionate about this program, and keen to partner with individuals, corporate establishments willing to lend a hand to support our students, through this student work study program”, Prof Emelue told Alltimepost.com.
Mrs. Rachael Salami, 50, (not related to the UNIBEN VC), is a mother of four. Her first daughter, Ebiriemhen graduated from university last year, and her first son gained admission into the Auchi Polytechnic this year.
“Schooling in Nigeria these days is very, very hard oh. We had to put all our lives on hold to see that our daughter graduated from university. E no easy o (It is not easy), especially with the way things are in Nigeria.
“We have three more children to see through school…my husband has a petty business and it does not bring in much,” Salami told Alltimepost.com.
There are other parents like Rachael who say a project like the work study program in UNIBEN is a good idea. One of them, Omoruyi Ebueku told Alltimepost.com that the only way to go, however, is ‘full scholarship, and not just the tuition-free ones that are usually given.”
“The states or local governments could collaborate with university authorities to offer bursaries to indigent students as was done in our days as students,” Ebueku said.
Another parent, Eki Ehizele has another idea: “Federal, state governments and individuals can come together to support a program like the one UNIBEN is trying to run. I’d recommend college loan system can be instituted as well.”
Innocent Edemhanria, program manager with the Africa Network for Environment & Economic Justice, (ANEEJ) bared his mind on the current state of affairs. According to him, the difficulties that students face with their studies is connected with the general state of poverty, insecurity and unemployment in Nigeria.
Hear him: “If government at all levels can fix the public school system, reduce unemployment and poverty, it would be a lot easier for parents to support their children through university.
“When I was a student in UNIBEN in the late 90s, the authorities had a student work study program. I remember some of my course mates taking advantage of it to work a few hours to earn some money to sustain their studies.
“Today, they are graduates, and contributing to the uplift of Nigeria in one way or the other. Therefore, any program UNIBEN is putting in place to ameliorate the plight of poor students is in the right direction, and deserves support by all.”
- An Alltimepost.com agenda-setting story.
