Nigerians, numbering 41, who were granted full scholarship to study at Alabama State University, have sued the institution for acts of discrimination spanning years.
During the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the students each got full scholarships from a government fund for four years of education.
A lawsuit was last week filed by the Nigerians, some of whom have graduated from the university.
According to The Daily Beast, they accused the school of charging them excessively for books and meals, enrolling them in classes they never took, and other discriminatory acts.
The school was alleged to have inflated the costs of books, hostels, and used funds paid by the Nigerian government to sort out the school’s “bond issues”, pay for “a new stadium,” and a center for civil rights awareness.
Julian McPhillips, an attorney who filed the lawsuit said, “because of their Nigerian national origin,” they were not “being treated like other students”.
“They called us cash cows. I’m a black man and I’m proud to be black, but I felt discriminated against”, said Jimmy Iwezu, a former student of ASU.
“The school compelled us to buy books from the book store and eat only at the cafeteria. I tried to make them understand, ‘Hey, we don’t want to live in the dorms anymore, and we don’t want to eat our entire meals at the dorms.”
“They want our money. They make us pay $3,000 [a semester] to live in the dorms, and that is more than a mortgage on homes in this area. Enough is enough.”
Speaking in the same vein, Kehinde Batife, a graduate of criminal justice said: “We looked at what happens with other students when they are given refunds and compared it to our student accounts. We would see a refund, but before we could do anything about it, the refund was taken out.”
“They had me as if I was going to school this summer. I asked them, ‘I graduated in May, so where is the scholarship money my government gives to you?’”
“They tell me, ‘You’re a resident of the scholarship.’ So they think they can do whatever they want with the money [Nigeria] gives them…I’m not going to let them treat us like animals.”
“I’ve been here three years and I’m a super intelligent person. I’m not nosy, but I ask questions, and this school thought we don’t know anything and they could do whatever they want to us.
“I cannot forget about this and I’m ready to fight the school, even if it means 10 years from now I’m still fighting to get justice.”
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