The Government of Ghana has abandandoned about 32 Ghanaian students studying various degree programmes on government scholarship in Turkey.
The students who are said to be going through financial difficulties as a result of the government’s refusal to pay their allowances have allegedly resorted to borrowing money and begging for food from individuals on the streets of Turkey to support their livelihoods. The appalling financial situation of the students is said to have put their lives in critical conditions particularly, the female students who could not cope with the situation.
The President of Ghanaian Students on the Government Scholarship in that country, Mr. Osman Mohammed who made a distress call to Zaa Radio said that life was getting tougher for them because the government had persistenetly failed to pay their allowances for about a year now as a result, most students could not afford the cost of transportation to and from university campuses neither could they afford to buy learning materials or pay for the cost of their thesis, especially, the final year students.
Mr. Mohammed said, though they have written several letters to the goverment of Ghana about their plight, nothing is done about it. He said, most students are considering abandoning their programmes to look for alternative livelihoods and that if nothing is done soon, the students might resort to unhealthy activities that can tarnish the image of Ghana in Turkey.
He alleged that, the authorities at various departments and consulates particularly, the scholarship secretariat have been playing games with their plight and that several letters, personal contacts and phone calls to the scholarship Secretariat and Ministry of Education to prompt them to act on the release of their allowances failed to yield any result.
He appealed to President John Evans Atta Mills, and Vice President John Draimani Mahama to personally intervene for the release of their allowances to cushion their financial difficulties. He warned that, failure by the government to release the money in time will put the students in a very critical conditions in Turkey.
The government is said to have released allowances of students based in other countries who are on the same scholarship, but however failed to do so for those in Turkey irrespective of several reminders by these students to the government to pay them their allowances. All efforts by Zaa Radio to speak to the Government Scholarship Secretariat and Ministry of Education for their comments failed as authorities refused to make any comments on the issue citing political intimidation and harassments.
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