ABBARDEEN

Anthony EJuks – Iam a Phd student in computing science under PTDF funding, my research bothers around issues of trust and reputations on how to access information quality when you have a piece of data coming from multiple sources in order to arrive at intellectual decision making.

Q.      Have you made any significant break-through that gives you the impression that you will succeed in your academic pursuit?

-         Yeah, I have published in international conferences and workshops, I have given presentations and right now I have other face of research agenda that is going, last year I was at Valencia, Spain to talk on my research in international conference of multi agent systems we have researchers too coming from all over the world, also last year too I was invited as a summary intent at IBM teacher Watson Research Centre, at New York and there I met with great minds, people in computer science that I have been reading about, it was really something very spectacular, a life changing for me to be able to work with such great minds and to contribute my own little quota to the growth of the body of knowledge, just in about a week the I will be visiting Istanbul, Turkey for conference on information fusion, it really has some military undertone because you have people in their difference sector coming to talk about advances in their research fusion and engineering and I will be staying on for another month to carryout research of Ossen university as a part of their university collaboration work I am part of, yes, I will say, that to some extent I have made some significant progress and I hope that, the end will really be a glory of getting there, but I am not there yet,

-        What are the challenges of your studies

-        I really want to thank the ES of PTDF for finding time to come here with the entourage, that really shows the kind of his commitment in advancing the course of scholars because that pets back to the Nigerian economy too, yea!, I quite appreciate that scholars have raised a couple of issues bothering on their welfare here, about finances and things like that, for all of us that are here in the UK it will be quite difficult and challenging for a particular organization to manage the scholars, who really have a problem which you cannot ignore, I am really very happy and positive that, what we heard today is going towards the positive, one of the problems we brought up was issues of publishing our work because we want to shout out and tell the world that, Nigerian scholars are conquering their own space, so that to me, is very concrete because there’s no need doing a research and burying it elsewhere, you need to publish your research, you need to publish your research, you need to go out there and shout about it and it really pleased me that, the ES sees this as a very core and fundamental issue that, the PTDF should tackle and personally I am optimistic that, most of this issues will be addressed.

-         Some said that PTDF should scrap it because it looks like a jamboree?

-         I quite appreciate his view point, but I think I will digrace a bit, if you see what most of the developed countries are doing even UK is sending their citizens out, I mean the world that we are leaving-in today, you can’t just say you are locking yourself inside a room, you have to go out, you have to collaborate with people, for instance I told you last year, I was in IBM, I mean, they could have sent any of their British student there, if you go there, there are many students, Chinese students, Japanese, American student, and are both sent outside research lab. No! I wouldn’t subscribe to that, I feel Nigeria should even do more, by and large the capacity building that we are trying to achieve here feeds back to our country I mean, I can’t tell you the number of young people that are aspiring back home, to take their studies seriously and until you flare at the international platform, how can you measure and or evaluate their achievements, I mean they cannot be a local champion, they want to compete internationally and that is the opportunity PTDF is giving to young engineers and young scientists in Nigeria, a country as advanced as Japan, China. We are nowhere close to them in Technology, can you count the number of Chinese students her in the US and the UK, you can’t. So I will even say PTDF should do more , we want to be significant in the committee of nations because that is what the world is all about.

-         What plans do you have to translate your knowledge back home to contribute to the transformation of Nigeria.

-         I want to say, even while I am here, I am contributing tremendously, to start with, publishing papers in reputable journals and conferences and this is adding to the body of knowledge and as a child I use to have this dream of working in the lab, teaching people developing young minds and as an undergraduate, the only pressure that will give me joy is standing on the platform, administering to young people, teaching them base on the knowledge I have, and thereafter that I discovered at home, probably I have to leave the shores of Nigeria because I don’t want to give these students half baked knowledge, because that is even more dangerous than illiteracy because someone give same trust to you because you can do something and you are not very good at it. It may cost a life. By and large my dream is to go back to my country because it has committed quite a lot to training me and I am forever indebted to the country,  I want to go back and see how I can contribute, I want to teach at the university, I want to advance research in my own specific fields and I want to give those Nigerian students to hope that, If I can do it and they are 100times better and smarter than me, then they can do it also, I want to tell them that they shouldn’t limit themselves and how can I do that? Potentially, by going back to Nigeria teaching, broadcasting all those things that I have learnt

in the classroom and hopefully one or two students would have a better life.

-         How does the journey start, how do you find yourself to be a PTDF scholar.

-         Its one of these lovely evening during my service year in Bidda, Niger state, I came across a relative of mine that was travelling to the northern part of Nigeria. She asked me what happens after my service year and I said I want to leave the shores of Nigeria after my service to advance my knowledge. So she promised to let me know if there’s any scholarship. Then she called to tell me that there’s one published but it’s for engineers, I said I can do it. I went to do exam for MSC in Calabar and I was one of the three students that were chosen from my state, Akwa Ibom. After then I felt the urge to advance, so I spoke with some academicians here, got a proposal, wrote to PTDF and they invited me for an interview, I went, I did my best and when the result came out, I was chosen and that was it. So this is something that has been bothering me, so as an advice I will give to the young people is that “drink your dream, sleep and walk with it. There’s always an opportunity somewhere” if it can happen to a poor child from an insignificant place, it can happen to any Nigerian and I want all Nigerian boys and girls to gear up to that opportunity and the sky will be their limit.

ABUBAKAR USMAN

Iam a lecturer at ABU Zaria and currently undergoing my PHD here in Abbardeen. My work has to do with uncertainty modeling with respect to chemical engineering systems, so far so good I am among those lucky ones sponsored by PTDF for MSC and applied again and got sponsored for PHD.

-         What are the academic accomplishment I gathered you are of the shining stars, what is it you have done that others have no?.

-         Well, during my MSC, I happen to graduate at the top of my class with a distinction and with the best research award from Engineering Institute and with some recommendations around, from the university and the supervisors as well, I have MSC in safety engineering, reliable and risk management and so far Iam in  my PHD, I have been opportune to go to Netherlands and present my work sponsored by PTDF and I was also nominated by the university last year to be among the first twenty-five (25) people selected for a global program organized by UIS to carry out research on seabed exploitation. The university again nominated me to represent her in that capacity, so I have made a book which I presented.

-         Plans upon completion.

-         Going back home to give to the country that has given me so much to do the little I can, this is my primary goal and I am also willing again to come from a university that is being funded by PTDF (ABU,Zaria), there’s a whole department now been funded and upgraded by PTDF, so with PTDF MSC scholarship, PHD scholarship with facilities around me, I think the sky is my starting point. That is my dream.

-         How do you intend to make the difference if you go to the university?

-         I always dream of establishing centre for safety and reliability research back home, so at the moment I am one of the board members for the centre of research and reliability in the university. I think Iam the only student on that board, I will go back with the same initiative, we have NEMA at the moment and we have six centers for disaster NSIC management distributed across the country, I want to go back and see how I can coordinate that and give my little support and only yesterday, I submitted a paper to PTDF journals.

INTERACTIONS

-          LUKMAN LAWAL.

Some of us are excited but not to the fullest, for some of us that are on MSC here, before we came, we are promised heaven and earth that nothing will go wrong when we came here, and we don’t seem to have that, thank GOD that the new ES is already pointing at these areas especially those that have to do with the payment of our upkeep, I was not paid my upkeep for six months. I have to be here on my own, I pass through hell, it was a bad experience for me and others that have that experience, I will quite appreciate it if PTDF worked on that aspect.

The second issue has to do with the payment of our fees and accommodation, similar thing happened to me and other scholars, we were served eviction notice, we were threatened many times and you know what it means when you are studying to be under tension. It was a terrible experience for me and other people that have it, I hope those areas will be looked into.

-         FAISAL UMAR.

I have to commend the new ES for ensuring us that it will not be business as usual, I mean there will be changes to the scholars, my own concern is about the journal issue, quite sure it will be good for us the scholars and the industry to publish in an international journal and I don’t know if the PTDF is doing something to make the journal as an open source one, to put it online so that everybody around the world can gain access to it. That is the only way people will benefit from the product of our own intellect because you will get many citations. I will be happy to have my work cited by others.

-         NO NAME.

Both married and single scholars are given 600 pounds and I think it’s not proportionate and here its difficult. I think for the married ones it should be increased.

-         UJEY UGO.

If we have an opportunity of transiting from single to married and then have our allowance proportionally upgraded, that will be quite good.

The other issue is about Job extension, we are applying because we cannot finish within 3 years, since its four years for some of us and what we are doing is very crucial to our country because we are trying to push and have chemical engineering as a discipline in our universities in Nigeria, if we can have good collaboration with the scientific agencies in Nigeria.

-         KOVI OGOYE

I want to say first of all that, I have appreciated greatly the PTDF because it gave me the opportunity to do my masters and then the opportunity to do PHD as well, it has been a very transparent process and most scholars can acknowledge that.

I think one of the reasons why PTDF send us is to prevent this in-breeding and allow exposure in us coming back home for development in our various institutions, because many of us doing Phd are lecturers in our various universities and I lectured in UNIBEN department of Mechanical and Productions and I happened to be doing a research in internal combulsion here at UCL and most of our projects are being sponsored by JAGUAR, LANDROVER and SHELL and indeed we are doing a ground breaking research, but I look around sometimes and discover that, we could even do this research in our country, Nigeria, so it has come across my thoughts overtime because I have a very good relationship with my supervisors and some of the experts in the industry. If we could form some kind of arrangement, if we could discuss with this people and set such laboratories and equipments where we could run some of this and get sponsorship as well from the multi-nationals where we could employ some of the good hands in Nigeria to be doing these researches and then get it into our institutions as well, because I believe it’s something we could do very well and we are ready to partner and see how we can get these things going.

The other issue is that, we are made to understand that, you could start your program anytime in the year, from the billing they give in UCL they will start billing from the day you have started your program, so the invoice sent to PTDF will not be the entire 12months so in as much as our fees are settled, we will need to pay the other months which were not included at the very first invoice that was sent to PTDF and knowing fully well that our course here is four years, our visa will be running out by January, we need to apply for the extension of visa and UCL has made it very clear to us that they will not be giving us any papers to the embassy/high commission if we did not clear those fees out, some of us who got families we don’t want to park our families to go and all that. So we will like PTDF to help us when these issues come up so that it doesn’t interfere with our studies.

ES RESPONSE

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen, let me say, I have been part of you 30years ago, I had a doctorate degree in 1982, this is my college ring. The problem you have is as result of planning, I will like to say that, these has existed as far back as 30years when I was also doing my doctorate program and it keeps on repeating itself. Having been through that myself when I had a federal government scholarship to do doctorate program, I know what it is, that is why when I first came in, the first few things I looked at are partly, whether our students are being paid, as I mentioned I know what it means when you are thousands of miles away. Our priority is to ensure that students are paid within the little available resources that we have, you would probably observe that in the past 6weeks some funds have been coming in for you, one way or the other we will try as much as possible to settle the bills as at when due.

For those who have extra month to stop and those who say their program is for four years and they are given three, I am sure the panel where you have been interviewed asked you how many years right? If you said three and it turned out to be four and the school can back it up for us, we would extend it, because there’s no need paying that much and not ensuring that you finished, it will be a waste of fund, so that we will do. On visa, we will help you extend it. Again, you must ensure that you gave us enough information and at the right time. Also about your tuition and all that, I had a meeting with officials of finance department earlier this morning and we have taken care of that, they are not going to run you out, Bio-chemical engineering department not in Nigeria. Yes, I can see a lot of you guys. You are the future, so I expect when you find your way there, you will ensure that you are the first set of people to get that up. I don’t also believe in in-breeding because you never improve, there’s what you call high-breed vigor, you find me as a student under you in the university, you are a professor, you go there as undergraduate, do a master and Phd under you and you find out that you are still staying in the madrex, some of the  schools in US, no matter how brilliant you are, you have to go out, may be for a year or two, imbibe some of the things being done out there and then you come back to the university to lecture, you know when you

go out, you are bringing something new and that is how the department will change and become dynamic, so those of you that have been trained at home and you are here, part of your responsibilities are to become a change agent back home, take things like the culture of learning being evolved here, so that is the only way you can improve on the system. Some of them at home and with the facilities some of them at home are doing very well, go anywhere around the world, you will find Nigerians and they are always right there at the top, so we are good, and we must find a way of bringing these things back home to improve our system at home for the young guys, I looked at you, I feel so happy because you are the future for us in the country. Someone said, he is delaying marriage, I think that is the best thing to do. I also had a girlfriend who insisted on getting marriage and I was a doctorate student. So I have to choose between what actually was my priority, getting the degree at hand and getting married or getting married and not getting the degree, so I knew that once I have the degree I will have a horde of women to marry. You know your education makes you move forward, so don’t let any man or woman to distract you, once you get it, all other things will likely fall in-line.

For the person who moved out, I think you have done the right thing, if you live here for ten years, you see that the determination of all these is your economic level, if you are earning 10$, you know where to live with it, take the cheapest means of transport because you have a long term objective you want to achieve, you have done the right thing by looking at your pocket and moving a little further away. I think we pay a little higher utilities for the married students, so we also understand that, that is why we pay a little higher, so you also have to try because you have the primary objective which is why you are here, if I have my way, I will be discriminating to say, don’t bring married people but that will not be fair but most importantly we want to spread the money as much as possible to as many students as possible so that the country can move ahead and have the manpower that we require, our primary objective in the agency is to have trained indigenous manpower and no other thing will distract us from that, any other thing is just a secondary to that, so please try and manage, if the opportunity comes and we have more money, we will adjust, you are already complaining that, we don’t pay you on time, so if we take additional responsibility then it means you are not even guaranteed of anything, anymore, but we want to make sure that, whatever we say, we will do for you, we did it. The journal, we are going to put it online, we will

make it accessible to the world not just Nigerian students like I said, we will get the website to be much more interactive and don’t be surprised to find your name at the website as a Nigerian scholar, we are going to put everything out on the website, so that everybody can know what we are doing.

Yeah! Someone was saying heaven and earth, I never promised you heaven and earth, this is a new dispensation and if you listen to me while I was talking, I said if for any reason we are not able to meet our obligations on time, we will let you know, that means that we will sit down and plan and we will know ahead that, we cannot meet that obligation and you are aware, but I know what it is to be outside the country and not be able to do the basic things that you are supposed to do, here you cannot run to your mother, etc. I cannot even come to your house to eat here, because you have limited income and you are managing here and there, taking an additional month is usually a problem, so I quite understand that, but we will do the best we can, like I said, your fees have been coming on gradually in the last couple of weeks and we will continue to do that until we are able to clear the backlog.

For the person that talked about having support from the department for the doctorate program and all that, if you have done your masters through us and you get support, we are most likely to give you the additional support and the person who has done masters and didn’t have support, you are lucky that the PTDF has given you support, because the intention is to get as many people as possible on board, we will continue to do whatever we can. So far those of you who have done masters and want to do PHD and didn’t want to come back home, make sure you have some form of support to back you up.

-         AWWAL BAMANGA (School of Environmental Sciences)

Mine is a suggestion, most of our case studies we are using Nigeria, I don’t know what the fund can do to have us especially those that are coming from the industry to use this our findings for the development of our own country, because most of the people will do PHD and say they want to go and teach but most of the findings are directly helping the industry, if I can give example of my case, I am looking at the effect of the contaminants within the Lagos, it means both the organic and inorganic contaminants that are affecting the harbor area which in-turn may affect the socio-economic activity, and I discover one thing that the Nigerian port authority doesn’t have anything as a guideline  also the NIMASA doesn’t have any guideline to monitor this havoc to ensure its quality, the NIMASA will come for meeting here but they will never carry out any investigation to say this what is happening to our area because most of the foreign ships belong to the foreigners, Nigeria doesn’t have any ship and all this vessels sail to Nigeria on a daily basis. There are 600vessels that will go and discharge this every year. But we don’t care because they can pay the dues and we collect and go our harbor is being destroyed, so it’s not just about having the PHD and we do the investigation and go, it’s about how we are going to use the result of our investigation and help the development guideline, I think ours should not go like that because most of our

case study is Nigeria we are using, so the Fund should help us, if your research is good, we look at how relevant it is going to be to the  oil and gas and to other related agencies, because we are suffering to go and bring data and samples from Nigeria and we will just keep the result with us, say we have PHD and submitted our thesis, so it’s very important for us.

AGBEDE OLUTAYE METIEW-----Chemical Engineering (Phd)

Sir, my concern is that we do not have access to Nigerian articles because they are very expensive and it therefore affect our good understanding of what I was coming here to do, though here I got all the access, I mean iam just trying to point out the limitations we have in Nigeria.

Another thing, here I worked at the laboratory with equipment that I never thought exist, with them I was able to develop processes on my own on how to get things done, I realized that, people here are just like us in Nigeria, only that we have some limitations there that will not allow us to do what we want. My concern is that, I will soon be leaving and going back to my University in Ogbomosho if I didn’t have access to these articles and equipments and materials I will lose all that I have learnt over the years with huge monies spent by PTDF. So I don’t know if there is anything PTDF could do to bridge the gap to avoid some of us going into politics or anything like that, for instance, like giving us grants to get equipments to continue the same level.

Another thing is if PTDF could make a platform of subscribing to international journals and articles so that, at least lecturers in the university can access this information and take some research.

OZUMA CHUKWU---Msc System Engineering and Management in UCL

I will appreciate PTDF Management for coming, Iam quite impressed that many scholars are interested in going back to be contributing, we can’t expect PTDF anyway to be doing everything that we want, but we are saying that, you can facilitate more or less, it could be a facilitation role that the PTDF could play by discussing with other agencies.

I also want to ask about the future of OSS program because we hear many news that, its going to be phased out and all that, I sincerely want to go back and contribute to our development, but we don’t have access to data, we don’t know what role can the PTDF play in talking to these agencies? My research requires I go to Nigeria to get data but the program does not support Msc student to travel and get acess to data, I don’t know what the PTDF can do to getting those result that are nigerain focused for Msc scholars. the point I want to make is with respect to conferences because it is expected that, within the period of your study do this conferences outside your school, I think if the funding for that could be facilitated, it will help us.

ES RESPONSE 2

Let me say that, since I came in the emphasis have been an paying whatever is owed, that is why you have some money last few weeks and it will keep on coming like that, and all the doctoral students those whose application have come to my desk, I have approve everyone that has come up until the time I left to UK it takes time for us to go through CBN and all that, because it’s not us paying you directly there are other processes of getting the foreign exchange, and what I do in the office is that no file stays overnight on my desk, I clear my desk because if I don’t do that every day my GM’s will have no work to do.

What I can assure you is that for the period that I would be here, we will try to be very effective and efficient, if we find lapses please let us know in the numbers we have given you but you must give us time, and part of my coming also is to have a feedback from you on what has been happening and to assist us on getting back to do what would be good for everybody.

On conferences, you also have a responsibility to us, don’t tell me that you will have a conference in two months time, there’s no way I can get money, because the conferences here would have one year notice and if you’re very certain that you are going to attend those conferences, send a details to us and all that, we would do the best and get the money for you, but if you give us 1-2 months, forget it you will have to pay on your own and we will re-in burse you later.

For data gathering, I think we have been paying for those that have met the grant have all have been approved. Yes! Part of what I read in the speech is that, we will cooperate with NCDMB, we know the skill gap and they know the 10C’s where gap exists, we will try and plug-in all those gaps. Don’t forget that we have other lower levels that we are training in fabrication and all that, this is also an input into the industry, you are the brains, the lower ones are the ones who will do it with their hands, so we are aware  that, we need both to get the industry moving, so as we train you to think for us, we also train those who will do the practical’s into the industry, you are the brains, the lower ones, are the ones who will do it with their hands, so we are aware that, we need both to get the industry moving, so as we train you to think for us, we also train those who will do the practical’s you are thinking about. So both ways we are training those that are necessary, so we will work with the NCDMB to achieve it. Same with NAFDAC, Bureau and all that, if you require anything just let us know, we would write them officially so that they let you have access, my believe is that we are all working for the same government. So I don’t need to cocoon myself and say this is my territory. You cannot succeed; I have to reach out to other organizations to make me succeed in what I do. So in short what I am saying is that, the Fund will collaborate with other

agencies for you to be able to gather your data and be able to do whatever is necessary for your studies.

Someone has talked about literature review being expensive and all that, but I tell you, you don’t expect the PTDF to only sponsored you, we would always do the best we can, within the guideline that we have, but you also have some responsibility to yourselves, to prioritize what you want, like I said, I have gone through what you are going through. I also went to University of Ibadan and I have to leave later to join the civil service and I have my reasons for leaving, is not unconnected with some of the things you have talked about.

Yes, on equipment and all that, the Fund have chairs in several universities, we are also upgrading the facilities in about 27 universities, we want to bring it as close as possible to what obtains here, so that we don’t just had a trained manpower that goes back home and have nothing to work with, we will be training you and bringing you if not at par with what you are saying but at least close to it, so that for you to be able to work effectively in the place, we have also proposed a virtual library in the upgrading and I think we will do that, so that when you came  back, this will already be in place for you. Whichever way you want to go with it.

Also the alumni association is part of it to help us networked, we will try to develop it for us to work together and achieve tangible things for the country.

Aminu Isiyaku Abdullahi – Structural Geology

We are very happy now the PTDF has dedicated lines for scholars but there could be some problems associated with calling like network or congestion etc, as a suggestion if PTDF can have somebody here domiciled in the UK or at least a university representative he could be a serving scholar that will just collect things on behalf of the other scholars and handed over to PTDF. He could also be a PTDF staff that can have an office here and things like that whom we can channel our issues to and bridge the communication gap.

The other things is the university enhancement scheme, like in ABU where I worked, your professional chair it’s given to chemical engineering and we in geology are happy that our university is chosen by PTDF but our department is very unique and important because there’'s no university in the whole north western part of Nigeria that offers it, I think it will be good if we can be co-opted in it to provide the needed developed in the sector.

The last thing I will say is appreciation, no matter the challenges the country is facing at the moment, we are very happy to be a part of PTDF beneficiaries. PTDF has in a long way help many of us to develop whatever we do, some of us are Ex-MSC scholars and now PHD scholars, we are very happy with what you are doing and we hope you will be rewarded.

-         ISHAKA SHITU AL-MUSTAPHA (MSC. MICRO OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT)

Sir, you are a father to all and we are very impressed with the way you spoke to us and we pray to Almighty God to strengthen you in wisdom and power, and all your Lieutenants.

Sir, my accommodation is finishing August and my program is not going to finish till October. Also, my thesis on the logistics and port strategy in our ports in Nigeria, there’s no doubt there’s dearth in the meantime manpower and the foreigners still dominate the sector, so I am hoping to get PTDF PHD scholarship to do something on our port reform, because when you look at it my supervisor was lucky to be a port adviser to the UK government. It’s not like before now we have value added services in Nigeria we are still far behind even though things are changing, we still have port delay and navigation issues, I want PTDF to help me to do my PHD on it.

-         Sub Lieutenant Sassunau (Nigerian Navy) I want to first of all commend the transparency of the Fund in the selection of the scholars. In 2011 when I was travelling for the aptitude test, I met somebody who told me that even when you write the examination you still have to go to their office and see one or two people, I heard of all of those things before, I went for  the NDA interview and they told me that, if your father is not a General, it will not work, but in PTDF its different, I went there without knowing anybody and I still succeeded, so I commend the Fund for that.

Secondly, about accommodation, some of us complained that over six months after resumption they did not have their accommodation paid, though to my surprise mine was paid just two months after resumption, I believe it has to do with the changes that the ES is talking about, so I also thank you for that.

Also, we the Nigerian Navy, since we are not involved in the war we spent most of our time protecting oil installation in the Niger Delta,, you can spend weeks protecting oil platform and all that and you hardly understand what you are protecting or what you are trying to save, so for me, I use it as an opportunity to know what it is, I mean, you wonder what is happening that they are keeping you out there, so understanding it now, I believe has motivated me better to be able to do what I am trained to do, all those high officers who you see as Task force A or B chairman on Pipe vandalization etc, need to understand it so they can effectively carry out their work by collaborating with key players in the industry. So I looked at it as a great opportunity and I believe PTDF is training the best when it comes to the members of the armed forces, and I believe PTDF is training the future generals and admirals with a very good understanding of what is happening in the oil and gas industry.

And again sir, some of us have difficulties in getting their release even getting their letter of release to the chief of Naval staff, so I was thinking that if PTDF could subsequently be writing to the CNS that, so so officers have met requirement and therefore awarded with scholarship, it may be easier, especially with the kind of relationship you have with the navy, I mean recently you opened a new e-learning centre for us in Lagos, thank you very much sir.

-         ECHE EFE OKWONJI (STUDYING PETROLEUM ENGINEERING AT UCL) MSC.

What is the procedure for obtaining re-imbursement because we have a field trip and we pay with our own money?

Secondly, we are having the problem of obtaining invoices from the school, because they will say we don’t know if you are being sponsored.

The other thing is about accommodation, we finished in October and our accommodation will finish in September.

Tuition fees, our school fees have not been paid.

-         ADAMU ABDULLAHI SULEIMAN.

I want to appreciate the ES for bridging the gap between PTDF and the scholars. Two, I have a suggestion about taking local content into our research work. It’s very important, if we can gear all our research work to add positive value to our country. If there’s any opportunity for you to find your research work in such a way that when you take it home, it will add a value, please do that and this have to go to especially the Geo-scientist, we have a bit of a challenge in unlocking the Nigerian inland hydrocarbon, so if there’s any way you can get the data back and PTDF can help, please do that.

Secondly, it’s about communication gap, someone told me he received an email saying that if he did not submit some documents, he will not be paid, so I don’t know if there’s a database of the scholars here in the UK at PTDF.

-         IBRAHIM RUQAYYA MUAZU

I just want to find out if PTDF have some form of support if a scholar is doing a project related to one’s research. The project may be sponsored by the university, like part funded, where the fund is not enough. Can PTDF support with the remaining funds.

ES LAST RESPONSE

I think I have addressed the last question before, if it’s related, we will give you the remaining half. If there’s any communication gap, we are sorry about that, we will try to make up for it and that’s why we are giving you numbers, pins and all that. Procedures for re-imbursement, we need to authenticate what you want, the school has to write, if you have the receipts, you also have to send it, that will help tremendously, I think what has been done partly this morning, we spoke with Sharon Orchin about the fees and other payment, I think they received some of it, so you could check, if you had applied earlier. Again, we will continue to leave applications open to anyone that’s interested from what the Naval officer said, I think we will not write to the Navy and say want scholars because that is another favoritism that could come in but we will continue to leave it open, if you succeed, we write to the Naval Authority that this your officer has succeeded and I think they will oblige, the Navy has a great role to play in guarding the oil installations, if we don’t have money coming from there or its destroyed in any way, we will all go down. That is where most of the foreign exchange comes from, so it must be properly guarded and we need to train people to help us do that. For the ports reform, yes continue to learn and let us know what you are doing on it, if there’s any assistance, you should let us know.

For those who have issues on accommodation, I think if it’s due to some very genuine circumstances, I think we will bridge that gap.

Also, we used to have a representative, if you listen to what I said, I said we have to terminate that in 2009 because it was taking a substantial amount of the resources of the Fund and that is the money we should apply to some others from you to be able to come in, we had to terminate that and we cannot contract that out but for some of the universities that we have MOU with, we have representatives who can also stand in for you and inform us what is going on. Also, you as students I think you need to organize yourself, maybe in some form of groups encompassing the universities may be in London and the surrounding areas, I think you should find a way to do that, to have somebody who can speak on your behalf, write on your behalf but whatever you do must not disturb the studies of that person, you can also write us because we have staffs that must be kept busy, so coming from both end will help us know the urgency of the matter that is at hand.

Yeah, we need to upgrade our database, for those of you that we don’t have your data for some reasons, give us that, okay? Give us now. So that we will get a little more organized on that as time goes on. And for Doctoral students who want to go on conferences, you can use the new portal that we have to contact us, to keep us busy and make sure that we respond to your request as soon as possible.

I don’t want to put my staff on ground here, because doing that will mean the money I should use for one or two students will be tied down taking care of staffs. So all the communication method that are available to us must be utilized, and I want to Implore you to try and give us a chance to have a good beginning, six weeks is not enough for anyone to do anything, one has to sit down and know what is going on, part of knowing what is going on is our coming here to meet with you but we will try and change things as quickly as possible to respond to your needs and like I said earlier, if for any reason we are unable to do that, we will let you know ahead of time. So I believe by September, October the changes we are trying to bring about will begin to manifest, so I want to thank you all very much.

VOTE OF THANKS BY REP OF THE SCHOLARS

-         MR KENNETH

I will like to first and foremost on behalf of the scholars thank the ES for actually finding time to come and meet with us. It’s something we haven’t done before, I know some time ago, there’s a letter that was sent to us to have a similar meeting, I think it was cancelled, now having it right here, I think it’s something of pride. We all have to be very thankful and I think we start seeing changes in these few weeks that you assumed office. Ah! He wouldn’t have done it alone, he has come with the support of his team members, so on behalf of the scholars too, I will like to thank his team members we thank the other officers too and we like to wish them a safe trip and we look forward to seeing the positive changes that you have told us that you are going to put in place.

And for us too, we would like to enjoin ourselves to be more serious with academics, like the ES said, we just have to leave everything and keep priority to what we are here for, and I think if we’ve done that, we will be able to achieve and go back to make our country great. On behalf of all of us, I thank you for coming and wish you a safe trip.

INTERVIEW

We are here in London, I got the first hand information of what the problems are and already we have been tackling some of them and they have attested to that and it’s been a good interactive session with them, and I know that with the group of student that we have here, the academia and the oil industry have a great future, they are very bright students and they are very enthusiastic about learning and coming back home to help Nigeria move up to the next level.

Q -      What are you going to do to ensure that they don’t take further chances in their remittances to the school and to the scholars?

Yes! What we are going to do on our own part in the agency first of all, we are going to ensure that we conform to the school year, because my observation is that, that has created a lot of problems for us, we have to pay for students over a period when they are not in school so we are going to plan very well that those who are suppose to come in September will actually come in September and we will do all we can to ensure that they are able to come at that time, those that are not able to come during that period will have to defer their admission to the following year, because we have to try and follow the budget cycle in order to ensure that those of them who are here and those who are beginning are being paid as at when due.

SCHOLAR

It has been quite laudable effort, to a kind of appreciate PTDF to grant us this scholarship and the experience have actually been interesting, though not without challenges, we definitely cannot run away from the fact that, there are 1 or 2 challenge, it’s quite interesting so to say and with the new ES, with all the promises that things are going to definitely change for the better, we believe in what he has said and from what we can see, he is definitely going to be a positive change and things will better, we actually believe that.

Q.     What are you going to give back to your country?

-        From what I can see, it’s obvious everyone of us is quite enthusiastic to go back to Nigeria and contribute positively to the development of Nigeria, from the looks of things we are all studying a different fields as it relates to oil and gas and I believe we all have the intention to go back and contribute our own quota to the development of oil industry and Nigeria as a whole.