Nigerian universities have shown readiness to admit students returning from the war-torn North African country, Sudan.
This is according to Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) while speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels TV programme on Thursday April 27, 2023.
While maintaining that priority, at the moment, was the safe return of the stranded students, she assured that, like it was with Ukraine returnees, the continuance of their education would not be a problem.
“We did it with Ukraine, when they came back, there were plans to continue education for them,” Dabiri-Erewa said.
“Although the medical students among them had issues because they found out that the level of their medical school was not even as high as that of Nigeria so it was difficult to place them where they wanted. But, yes, the ministry of foreign affairs actually created a division for that and ensured that those who wanted to continue their education did. A lot of them wanted to go back.
“Let them (the ones from Sudan) come back, let us receive them safely and then we take it. In fact, universities are already offering and have reached out to us that when they do come back and they want to continue their education, they should contact them, so all that shouldn’t be a problem at all.
“I think the number one problem is that you cannot be talking about continuing your education if you’re not safe so our focus and our anxiety is that all Nigerian students come back.
“President Buhari has approved funds so everything is done 24/7. So the first thing for us at this point in time is for them to reunite with their families. The issue of education shouldn’t be a problem.” She said
According to NAN, over 5,500 Nigerians schooling in war-torn Sudan are among the first batches of Nigerian citizens being evacuated from the troubled country.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan had earlier yesterday said a disagreement over payments was obstructing the process of evacuating stranded Nigerian students from the war-torn country.
In a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dated 27th April, 2023, the embassy said only 637 stranded Nigerians had so far been evacuated from Sudan using 13 buses.
“This is against our early arrangement with the company for the release of 20 buses per day, although, the company had prepared the balance of the 7 buses in the evening but withdrew them because the discussion for payments of the balance with DG NEMA in Cairo did not work out.
“Apparently, the company supplied the thirteen buses equivalents to the $400,000 deposit paid less $10,000 ($30000@bus). This morning, we don’t foresee the company supplying the additional buses needed to continue the exercise until the discussion in Cairo is concluded,” the letter, signed by the Cháncery, read in part.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia yesterday said it had evacuated approximately 2,544 persons from 74 countries, including 10 Nigerians, from Sudan.
This was contained in a statement last night from the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Abuja.
According to the statement, in continuation of the evacuation efforts being made by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the directives of the Kingdom’s leaderships, more evacuees continue to arrive Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, from the Republic of Sudan on Thursday, bringing the total number of evacuees from Sudan since the evacuations began at approximately 2,544 persons.
The statement said the evacuees comprised 119 Saudi citizens; while 2425 were from 74 countries among which 10 are from Nigeria.
It listed the nationalities of the countries as Nigeria, Netherlands, Russia, Lebanon, Norway, USA, Turkey, Serbia, Poland, Germany, India, Georgia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sweden, Uzbekistan, UK, Ireland, Kenya, Philippines, Ethiopia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Paraguay, Pakistan, Oman, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine.
Others were Mauritania, Yemen, Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Netherlands, Armenia, Hungary, Sweden, Turkey, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Tanzania, Djibouti, Cape Verde, Congo, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Somalia, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Croatia, Nicaragua, Liberia, South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Chad, Niger, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
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