Lagos — Every Nigerian scholarship student on arrival in the Russian federation is filled with hope and the aspiration to gain a sound education and to take the first steps in becoming a qualified specialist in his field of study.

Unfortunately, these hopes are dashed and the student becomes frustrated as he is faced with the realities of hunger, want, indebtedness, cold and hostility. Most of these problems are connected directly or indirectly with the way in which issues related to Nigerian scholarship students in this part of the world are handled.

We have stated on many occasions, the peculiarities and specifics of living in the Russian society, both personally to officials of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the scholarship board, and through other media. However, many of our complaints and proposals have not received the required attention. Permit me to use this opportunity to outline the issues yet again.

First and foremost is the issue of our monthly supplementation, which at present stands at $300 monthly. The payment of the monthly supplementation, which is our only source of upkeep, is highly irregular, forcing many of us to go into debt and live in hunger for weeks and months before the next payment. Considering the fact that weather conditions in Russia are the most extreme in the world (especially during winter) and our supplementation is our only source of income, it is only cruel to leave students with empty bellies and stranded in such conditions.

To address this issue, we are asking that funds for students' supplementation and other grants be projected for the full course of study or at least 3 years, so as to avoid the bottlenecks associated with processing documents every quarter. This will also alleviate the difficulties faced by students at the beginning of the year when scholars have to stay hungry for months before the budget is signed and implemented.

Other than that, we recommend that contingency funds be allocated and sent along with the basic allowances to cover unforeseen expenses. These expenses could include unexpected health problems, which require large sums that cannot be covered by a student's medical allowance.

At present we are being owed our October - December stipends and allowances, and our January - March stipends are due to be paid in a few weeks. This has put most of the students in a very inconvenient situation; many of us were practically thrown out of our hostels pending the time we pay the accommodation fees for the hostel and renew our medical insurance policies.

This definitely creates unfavorable conditions for academic success and can lead to emotional, psychological and physical stress. Sicknesses that could emerge from this certainly leave much to be desired. We therefore request that from now onwards our stipends and allowances be paid every 6 months, that is twice a year, as against the quarterly payments that is currently in practice.

Secondly, we recall that the sum of $300 was introduced in 2003 as monthly supplementation. Today, six years later, with the growth of the Russian economy, prices of food commodities, transportation and hostel accommodation have risen by drastic proportions. In addition to this, the exchange rate of the dollar has fallen over the same period. This invariably means that the money that comes into a student's hands has less value than before. In order to balance out the loss created by the earlier mentioned factors, we hereby request an increase in our monthly stipends to $600 or a change in currency to the Euro.

Thirdly, we wish to draw the attention of His Excellency to the disparity in the amounts disbursed as medical insurance. At present, a certain category of students receive $300, while others receive $200 for the same allowance. We recommend that this disparity be removed and the medical insurance be fixed at $500 per student. It should be noted that this amount is paid every year and covers only diagnostics in government hospitals.

Again, we wish to recall the one-time ticket introduced in 2004. Living in Russia which has many long winter months and few months of sunshine, the opportunity to visit home and see one's family during the study period helps the student regain his balance, both psychologically and health wise.

As a result, when this program which was meant to enable students visit home at least once during their course of study was introduced, it was widely acclaimed as a welcome development by all students. However, our joy was short-lived as the program was stopped after the first set of payments. Reasons for this sudden change of mind have not been given up till today. We ask that the Ministry of Education look into the issue with a view to resuming payment of these allowances.

We wish to draw the attention of the Ministry of Education to the gross inadequacy of the funds presently being paid as grants to students. These grants include allowances for books, medical expenses and the like. In today's world, where the use of information technology has spread to every sphere of life, study and learning has become virtually impossible without the use of computers and internet resources.

The use of these resources, however, is not free, neither is it cheap. To make these resources more accessible to us, we are asking for a review of the grants that cover books, stationeries and medical expenses to $1000 a year for undergraduate students, to $1500 for Masters Students and $2500 for students at the PhD level.

As was mentioned earlier, Russia is famous for its extreme winter temperatures. In January 2006, we experienced a temperature as low as -37°C in Moscow and even lower temperatures were recorded in other cities. This received serious attention from the world press, even as native Russians had a hard time getting through that period.

You can then imagine how students, who are originally from tropical countries, manage to survive such harsh weather. To say the least, it is difficult. In the best of situations, it would be advisable for us to purchase new winter wear every year as the old ones wear out. But this is beyond our reach for now, because we cannot afford to do so with the $50 winter allowance we receive.

Addressing this very important issue, which has direct effect on the health of students, requires an increment of our winter allowance to $500. This will cover winter jackets, boots, head gear, gloves, and the purchase of heating appliances. We believe the sum of $500 yearly is appropriate for this purpose.

Another important point that must be noted is the prevailing practice whereby scholarship students arrive late for the resumption of their preparatory language course. The academic year in Russia begins on the 1st of September, and a situation where Nigerian scholars arrive towards the end of November, December or even in January, as was the case recently, means that a student misses up to two months of study.

This affects the chances of the student learning Russian language properly, and immediately creates problems for him from the very beginning as he tries to catch up with his classmates from other nations of the world, who arrived on time.

Finally, we all realize the huge importance of practical work for any specialist. Here in Russia, the opportunity to do serious practical is lacking, due to the secretive nature of certain of Russia's production systems. Furthermore, medical students require case studies dealing particularly with tropical diseases, which cannot be found here in Russia. We have made our case in the past on the need to create avenues for us to undergo practical and internships back home, but none of our appeals have received response thus far.

Having said all, we pray that the hopes and dreams of a better future for our nation which we had in the beginning will be restored. We pray that in the place of hunger, we will have food to eat and stay warm when it gets cold; Actually, as we are writing we are putting together this letter, we have not been paid a dime for over 2 months now. The Federal scholarship board suggests that this might last longer. Please don't let us die of hunger here and don't complain if we break into the embassy of Nigeria in Moscow.

In closing, we wish to express our gratitude for the efforts you have made in the past and those being made at present to make our study here in Russia successful. We are committed to being worthy ambassadors of our country, Nigeria, and to working hard to gain the knowledge that Nigeria desperately needs to compete in the global community in this 21st Century.