According to latest report reaching our news desk, which disclosed that a whooping sum of seventy five thousand Nigerians are studying in Ghana, and thousands of others are clamouring for opportunities to school in Ghana.
Which you can’t blame the students or their parents/guardians, because the Academic staff union of Polytechnics are in striking for the past 9 months now, while College of Education are almost striking for a year now. Students are doing nothing but sitting at home, reading latest 2014 asup news and coeasu strike news.
However, the recent deaths of some Nigerian students in Ghana shattered the ‘Eldorado’ perceptions of Nigerian parents towards Ghanaian tertiary institutions. Following critical assessment of Ghana’s institutions has highlighted their good, bad and the ugly sides – along with the extraordinary news that there are now some 75,000 Nigerians studying in Ghana only. This is the nearest Country with a good educational standard when compared to Nigeria.
The Authorities in the two West African countries have agreed to implement the Arusha Convention on recognition of higher education qualifications in Africa, with a view to improving the portability of degrees and tackling problems in many private universities in Ghana, where Nigerian enrolments are on the rise.
However, the murder of Godwin Ayogu (19), who is a Nigerian social science student, studying at the University of Cape Coast, did wake up the consciousness of Nigerians towards some harsh realities of the living and working conditions of Nigerians in their neighbouring country (Ghana).
In the month of April alone, more than five students were arrested for allegedly killing one Mr Ayogu when he tried to recover money, which he innocently lent to a fellow student (friend of course).
Digging deep, we discovered at Dailyschoolnews Nigeria that the late last year, two Nigerian students accidently drowned while on a university outing in Ghana, and a Nigerian school pupil died mysteriously in Tema, and till date, the cause of his Death is still unknown, while his body has been sent back to his parent.
The Ayogu case, however is the one case taken up by the federal government, this case did triggered an intervention by the Nigerian government through its embassy in Ghana’s capital Accra, and also made Nigerians aware for the first time of the situation faced by Nigerians schooling abroad and the intimidation.
One tertiary institution is the Valley View University, which is owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church – the first and still the only private university that awards its own qualifications rather than those of foreign or public institutions.
The other 49 private institutions, the journalists claimed, had defects:
- They are largely sub-standard and affiliates or satellite campuses of foreign-based universities. Quality control mechanisms are mostly absent.
- Weak infrastructure, with institutions housed in rented, inadequate and in some cases incomplete structures.
- Curricula are controlled by overseas home campuses without input from Ghana’s National Board of Accreditation.
- Prospective students do not have to possess required numbers of credits before being admitted: such students register for remedial courses to make up the shortfall while simultaneously undertaking undergraduate courses.
- Some Nigerian students are used as ‘middle-men’ to attract fellow citizens to institutions and are financially rewarded based on the number of candidates they lure, also known as affiliate marketing in financial accounting.
The truth is that there are many Nigerian students in Ghana’s public and private universities.
We just hope that Nigeria federal government take the security of her scholars and citizens in foreign countries, both in Africa and other continents serious.
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