Godsgift Moses, Promise Owei, Thankgod Harold, Success Jumbo, Savior
\nSamuel, and 30 more Nigerian students came to America hoping it would be
\nthe promised land.
\nIt\u2019s only fitting that \u201cOpportunity is here\u201d is the motto of Alabama State
\nUniversity, listed as one of America\u2019s 100 Historic Black Colleges and
\nUniversities, and where they got full scholarships from a Nigerian
\ngovernment fund for four years of education. Instead of getting
\nopportunity, they say the school took their country\u2019s millions and used
\nthe money to discriminate against them.
\nIn a lawsuit filed last week in federal court, 41 Nigerian nationals\u2014many
\nof whom are now Alabama State University alumni\u2014allege the school
\novercharged them for books and meals, enrolled them in classes they never
\ntook, and more, all because they were black foreigners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey called us cash cows,\u201d said Jimmy Iwezu, an ASU alum who claims the
\nuniversity intentionally mismanaged millions from a scholarship fund set
\nup by the Nigerian government that was paid in advance for every exchange
\nstudent. \u201cI\u2019m a black man and I\u2019m proud to be black, but I felt
\ndiscriminated against.\u201d
\nThe 37-year-old social work grad cites the school\u2019s self-proclaimed
\nautonomy to do whatever it wished with the seven-figure sum Nigeria
\nprepaid back in 2013 for some 41 students to go to the school.
\nAttorney Julian McPhillips, who brought the lawsuit to court for the
\nsecond time\u2014the first attempt, back in April, accused the school of
\nbreaching its contract with Nigeria and was dismissed\u2014suggests ASU
\nviolated Title VI civil rights.
\nThe students allege they were shorted their deserved monies by ASU
\n\u201cbecause of their Nigerian national origin,\u201d according to the lawsuit.
\nMcPhillips contends ASU hammered the students with exorbitant \u201cbilling\u201d
\nand they weren\u2019t \u201cbeing treated like other students\u201d when the school
\nallegedly inflated the costs of staples like books and room and board, and
\nrepurposed the funds to pay for the school\u2019s \u201cbond issues\u201d and to help
\nfront costs for \u201ca new stadium,\u201d and, ironically, a center for civil
\nrights awareness.
\n\u201cThe school acted in a really disingenuous and self-serving way,\u201d
\nMcPhillips told The Daily Beast.
\nWhile most college students are permitted to bargain shop for textbooks
\nwherever they wish or dine at different establishments beyond the school
\ncafeterias, the Nigerian nationals at ASU, according to the federal
\ncomplaint, were boxed in.
\nThe lawsuit claims \u201cthey were not allowed by ASU to spend this money, but
\ninstead the money was credited towards certain expenses the students
\nincurred, or towards other expenses ASU incurred that were unrelated to
\nthe students.\u201d
\n\u201cThe school compelled us to buy books from the book store and eat only at
\nthe cafeteria,\u201d Iwezu said. \u201cI tried to make them understand, \u2018Hey, we
\ndon\u2019t want to live in the dorms anymore, and we don\u2019t want to eat our
\nentire meals at the dorms.\u201d
\nHe said greed trumped reason.
\n\u201cThey want our money,\u201d he said, adding that the surcharge to live on
\ncampus was raised specifically for him and his Nigerian counterparts.
\n\u201cThey make us pay $3,000 [a semester] to live in the dorms, and that is
\nmore than a mortgage on homes in this area.
\n\u201cEnough is enough.\u201d
\nBack in 2013, Dr. David Iyegha, a geography professor at ASU for almost
\nthree decades, made a pilgrimage to Lagos, serving as the school\u2019s
\nambassador to recruit fellow Nigerians with a mandate to attract its best
\nand brightest to relocate to Montgomery, Alabama, for their higher
\neducation.
\n\u201cI went to Nigeria with one other faculty member and recruited these
\nstudents to be sponsored by the Nigerian federal government,\u201d Iyegha told
\nThe Daily Beast.
\nToday he is withered in regret.
\n\u201cI feel very, very bad because I was the one who was instrumental in
\nbringing these students to the campus,\u201d he said.
\nIyegha, whose son is currently on a Ph.D. track at ASU, feels like he let
\ndown so many promising prospects.
\n\u201c[Nigeria] paid for everything, including their books, and all of the
\nmoney is supposed to be given to the students so they can buy this or
\nthat.
\n\u201cBut the college refused to release any of that money at all for the past
\nthree years.\u201d
\nWhile the money was prepaid and guaranteed by the Nigerian government,
\nthat didn\u2019t grant the school carte blanche on how it was supposed to be
\nspent, he said.
\n\u201cI asked them, \u2018Why are you treating these kids like this? Why are you
\ndepriving them?\u2019 and after talking to them at length, they told me they
\nspent all the money and there is no money left.\u201d
\nAn ASU spokesman told The Daily Beast that \u201csince it\u2019s pending litigation
\nagainst our university, Alabama State University has no comment.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, the retired 67-year-old academic says he is stunned the school
\nhe faithfully served and recruited for shorted these Nigerian nationals.
\nIyegha said Nigeria allocated approximately $30,000-$35,000 annually for
\neach student to attend fall, spring, and summer semesters. Those funds
\nwould also go toward books, room and board, and incidentals.
\nNigeria \u201cpaid in full the entire cost\u201d for the 2014-15 year, but ASU
\nhoarded the money instead of depositing \u201cany excess sponsorship monies
\ninto the students\u2019 accounts,\u201d the lawsuit claims.
\nThe students were suspicious of the allegedly questionable accounting
\npractices and decided to raise cain with their consulate.
\nIn a May 2015 letter addressed to ASU\u2019s president Dr. Gwendolyn Boyd, a
\nspecial adviser to the former president Goodluck Jonathan named Kingsley
\nKuku blasted the college for its \u201cdiscriminatory practices\u201d and for
\nbreaching its fiduciary duties.
\nThe dignitary empaneled a delegation to head to Montgomery to deal with
\nthe financial fracas and demanded that \u201call credit balances for tuition be
\ncarried over for each student and be used as initial deposit for the next
\nsemester fees\u201d and that ASU refund \u201ceach student\u201d for \u201call other line
\nitems.\u201d
\nAfter months of inaction, the students\u2019 attorney McPhillips shot back in
\nNovember, demanding ASU quit the \u201cstonewall\u201d or \u201ccontinuing silence\u201d and
\ninstead \u201ctreat them justly from an economic perspective\u201d and refund
\nportions of \u201ctuition, books, room and board, especially for the summer
\nsemesters of 2015 and 2016, and all personal expenses not used.\u201d
\nHe pointed to Nigerian student Success Jumbo, who had married and was
\nliving off-campus and deserved a refund because his government \u201cpaid for
\nnearly two years of dormitory expenses on his behalf, even though he has
\nnot
\nneeded said expense.\u201d
\nIn a terse response two months later, Kenneth Thomas, ASU\u2019s general
\ncounsel, wrote back stating that the oral agreement between Nigeria and
\nASU supersedes McPhillips\u2019s clients\u2019 claims. \u201cThere is no financial
\nagreement between the University and the individual Nigerian students,\u201d
\nThomas wrote.<\/p>\n
That meant the Nigerians\u2019 gripes were frivolous and that if there were any
\nrefunds to be had, they would \u201cinure to the Nigerian Government and not to
\nthe individual students.\u201d
\nThus, the school\u2019s counsel wrote, \u201cAlabama State University denies your
\nclaim.\u201d
\nWhile the legal process was underway, the Nigerian students refused to be
\ntreated like naive foreigners.
\nThey started to school themselves and enterprisingly even traded notes
\nwith other students at neighboring schools like Troy State and Alabama
\nUniversity.
\n\u201cWe looked at what happens with other students when they are given refunds
\nand compared it to our student accounts,\u201d Kehinde Batife told The Daily
\nBeast. \u201cWe would see a refund, but before we could do anything about it,
\nthe refund was taken out.\u201d
\nThe now 28-year-old criminal justice graduate says he was charged for
\nsummer school he never attended, after he had already graduated.
\n\u201cThey had me as if I was going to school this summer,\u201d the puzzled
\ngraduate said. \u201cI asked them, \u2018I graduated in May, so where is the
\nscholarship money my government gives to you?\u2019\u201d
\nAnd when he called the administration out, he says school administrators
\nquickly denounced him.
\n\u201cThey tell me, \u2018You\u2019re a resident of the scholarship.\u2019 So they think they
\ncan do whatever they want with the money [Nigeria] gives them\u2026 I\u2019m not
\ngoing to let them treat us like animals.\u201d
\nBatife, who is hoping to afford law school to one day, remains irate about
\nASU\u2019s alleged underhanded tactics.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been here three years and I\u2019m a super intelligent person,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not nosy, but I ask questions, and this school thought we don\u2019t know
\nanything and they could do whatever they want to us.
\n\u201cI cannot forget about this and I\u2019m ready to fight the school, even if it
\nmeans 10 years from now I\u2019m still fighting to get justice.\u201d
\nThe fight isn\u2019t about riches either.
\nA victory for Iwezu would be for ASU to pay restitution that can then
\nbankroll future Nigerian students\u2019 higher education in the U.S.
\n\u201cI want justice to prevail, and the remaining money should go to
\n[Nigeria\u2019s] Treasury and make a better life for other Nigerians.\u201d
\nEditor\u2019s Note: The story has been updated to reflect that ASU a Historical
\nBlack College and University (HBCU).
\nCourtesy: The Daily Beast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s only fitting that \u201cOpportunity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n