This was the case made by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria on his maiden visit to the newly appointed Minister for Education, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The High Commissioner, Mr Richard Gozney stated that “only 8,000 out of 28,000 Nigerians that applied to study in the United Kingdom in 2006 were successful ” furthermore, he stated “that the remaining applicants (20,000) could not fill their visa forms correctly”…… Punch

It is scandalous that over 71% of applicants cannot fill visa forms correctly to be able to secure visa to the UK. The question then is; Who is to blame? The applicants or the High Commission?

The high number of applicants that failed to fill ordinary visa forms correctly calls for concern to all that is involved. Thus, one can view in the light of poor quality of graduates being churned out by our institutions; that cannot follow instuctions and successfully complete  basic application forms. Should this be the case, it validates the rot and failure of education in Nigeria.

On the other hand, the High Commission should not come out to announce to the world and Nigeria in particular that such an outrageous number of applicants cannot complete ordinary application forms. Judging by that number, one is bound to postulate that there is something fundamentally wrong with the forms taking into account such failure rate. Thus, the need for the High Commission to review the forms and use the data so far generated to make the forms more user friendly; which I think is attributable to this level of failure.

While congratulating the new Minister of Education, Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu, I will not hesitate to bring to your notice this habitual trumping up of unsubstantiated excuses by the British High Commission to deny qualified and eligible Nigerian candidates visa to study in the United Kingdom as well as other categories of applicants. Having said that, you also have it as a duty to work towards making it possible to reduce this number of people seeking admission elsewhere; simply if that “thing wey dey for Sokoto dey for Sokoto” this story would not be the same. Mr Gozney would have come to tell you how wonderful UK schools are and the need for Nigerian Students to come and see how good they are and take advantage. Since we do not have where to lie because we have not made our beds, thus the audacity they have to treat us with impunity.  Mr Minister, you have no reason not to help and change the fortunes of Nigerians Students; no matter what, ‘there is no place like home’. If we had choice, studying abroad would never have been an option; moreover, we can fill forms and have been doing so before now.

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