Godsgift Moses, Promise Owei, Thankgod Harold, Success Jumbo, Savior
Samuel, and 30 more Nigerian students came to America hoping it would be
the promised land.
It’s only fitting that “Opportunity is here” is the motto of Alabama State
University, listed as one of America’s 100 Historic Black Colleges and
Universities, and where they got full scholarships from a Nigerian
government fund for four years of education. Instead of getting
opportunity, they say the school took their country’s millions and used
the money to discriminate against them.
In a lawsuit filed last week in federal court, 41 Nigerian nationals—many
of whom are now Alabama State University alumni—allege the school
overcharged them for books and meals, enrolled them in classes they never
took, and more, all because they were black foreigners.
“They called us cash cows,” said Jimmy Iwezu, an ASU alum who claims the
university intentionally mismanaged millions from a scholarship fund set
up by the Nigerian government that was paid in advance for every exchange
student. “I’m a black man and I’m proud to be black, but I felt
discriminated against.”
The 37-year-old social work grad cites the school’s self-proclaimed
autonomy to do whatever it wished with the seven-figure sum Nigeria
prepaid back in 2013 for some 41 students to go to the school.
Attorney Julian McPhillips, who brought the lawsuit to court for the
second time—the first attempt, back in April, accused the school of
breaching its contract with Nigeria and was dismissed—suggests ASU
violated Title VI civil rights.
The students allege they were shorted their deserved monies by ASU
“because of their Nigerian national origin,” according to the lawsuit.
McPhillips contends ASU hammered the students with exorbitant “billing”
and they weren’t “being treated like other students” when the school
allegedly inflated the costs of staples like books and room and board, and
repurposed the funds to pay for the school’s “bond issues” and to help
front costs for “a new stadium,” and, ironically, a center for civil
rights awareness.
“The school acted in a really disingenuous and self-serving way,”
McPhillips told The Daily Beast.
While most college students are permitted to bargain shop for textbooks
wherever they wish or dine at different establishments beyond the school
cafeterias, the Nigerian nationals at ASU, according to the federal
complaint, were boxed in.
The lawsuit claims “they were not allowed by ASU to spend this money, but
instead the money was credited towards certain expenses the students
incurred, or towards other expenses ASU incurred that were unrelated to
the students.”
“The school compelled us to buy books from the book store and eat only at
the cafeteria,” Iwezu said. “I tried to make them understand, ‘Hey, we
don’t want to live in the dorms anymore, and we don’t want to eat our
entire meals at the dorms.”
He said greed trumped reason.
“They want our money,” he said, adding that the surcharge to live on
campus was raised specifically for him and his Nigerian counterparts.
“They make us pay $3,000 [a semester] to live in the dorms, and that is
more than a mortgage on homes in this area.
“Enough is enough.”
Back in 2013, Dr. David Iyegha, a geography professor at ASU for almost
three decades, made a pilgrimage to Lagos, serving as the school’s
ambassador to recruit fellow Nigerians with a mandate to attract its best
and brightest to relocate to Montgomery, Alabama, for their higher
education.
“I went to Nigeria with one other faculty member and recruited these
students to be sponsored by the Nigerian federal government,” Iyegha told
The Daily Beast.
Today he is withered in regret.
“I feel very, very bad because I was the one who was instrumental in
bringing these students to the campus,” he said.
Iyegha, whose son is currently on a Ph.D. track at ASU, feels like he let
down so many promising prospects.
“[Nigeria] paid for everything, including their books, and all of the
money is supposed to be given to the students so they can buy this or
that.
“But the college refused to release any of that money at all for the past
three years.”
While the money was prepaid and guaranteed by the Nigerian government,
that didn’t grant the school carte blanche on how it was supposed to be
spent, he said.
“I asked them, ‘Why are you treating these kids like this? Why are you
depriving them?’ and after talking to them at length, they told me they
spent all the money and there is no money left.”
An ASU spokesman told The Daily Beast that “since it’s pending litigation
against our university, Alabama State University has no comment.”
Meanwhile, the retired 67-year-old academic says he is stunned the school
he faithfully served and recruited for shorted these Nigerian nationals.
Iyegha said Nigeria allocated approximately $30,000-$35,000 annually for
each student to attend fall, spring, and summer semesters. Those funds
would also go toward books, room and board, and incidentals.
Nigeria “paid in full the entire cost” for the 2014-15 year, but ASU
hoarded the money instead of depositing “any excess sponsorship monies
into the students’ accounts,” the lawsuit claims.
The students were suspicious of the allegedly questionable accounting
practices and decided to raise cain with their consulate.
In a May 2015 letter addressed to ASU’s president Dr. Gwendolyn Boyd, a
special adviser to the former president Goodluck Jonathan named Kingsley
Kuku blasted the college for its “discriminatory practices” and for
breaching its fiduciary duties.
The dignitary empaneled a delegation to head to Montgomery to deal with
the financial fracas and demanded that “all credit balances for tuition be
carried over for each student and be used as initial deposit for the next
semester fees” and that ASU refund “each student” for “all other line
items.”
After months of inaction, the students’ attorney McPhillips shot back in
November, demanding ASU quit the “stonewall” or “continuing silence” and
instead “treat them justly from an economic perspective” and refund
portions of “tuition, books, room and board, especially for the summer
semesters of 2015 and 2016, and all personal expenses not used.”
He pointed to Nigerian student Success Jumbo, who had married and was
living off-campus and deserved a refund because his government “paid for
nearly two years of dormitory expenses on his behalf, even though he has
not
needed said expense.”
In a terse response two months later, Kenneth Thomas, ASU’s general
counsel, wrote back stating that the oral agreement between Nigeria and
ASU supersedes McPhillips’s clients’ claims. “There is no financial
agreement between the University and the individual Nigerian students,”
Thomas wrote.
That meant the Nigerians’ gripes were frivolous and that if there were any
refunds to be had, they would “inure to the Nigerian Government and not to
the individual students.”
Thus, the school’s counsel wrote, “Alabama State University denies your
claim.”
While the legal process was underway, the Nigerian students refused to be
treated like naive foreigners.
They started to school themselves and enterprisingly even traded notes
with other students at neighboring schools like Troy State and Alabama
University.
“We looked at what happens with other students when they are given refunds
and compared it to our student accounts,” Kehinde Batife told The Daily
Beast. “We would see a refund, but before we could do anything about it,
the refund was taken out.”
The now 28-year-old criminal justice graduate says he was charged for
summer school he never attended, after he had already graduated.
“They had me as if I was going to school this summer,” the puzzled
graduate said. “I asked them, ‘I graduated in May, so where is the
scholarship money my government gives to you?’”
And when he called the administration out, he says school administrators
quickly denounced him.
“They tell me, ‘You’re a resident of the scholarship.’ So they think they
can do whatever they want with the money [Nigeria] gives them… I’m not
going to let them treat us like animals.”
Batife, who is hoping to afford law school to one day, remains irate about
ASU’s alleged underhanded tactics.
“I’ve been here three years and I’m a super intelligent person,” he said.
“I’m not nosy, but I ask questions, and this school thought we don’t know
anything and they could do whatever they want to us.
“I cannot forget about this and I’m ready to fight the school, even if it
means 10 years from now I’m still fighting to get justice.”
The fight isn’t about riches either.
A victory for Iwezu would be for ASU to pay restitution that can then
bankroll future Nigerian students’ higher education in the U.S.
“I want justice to prevail, and the remaining money should go to
[Nigeria’s] Treasury and make a better life for other Nigerians.”
Editor’s Note: The story has been updated to reflect that ASU a Historical
Black College and University (HBCU).
Courtesy: The Daily Beast