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•A victim’s account citing racism, discrimination
From Ben Dunno, Warri
A Nigerian-Italian, Mr. Theophilus Osemele, has raised the alarm over plights of Nigerian students abroad. He studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom. He urged government and other stakeholders to as a matter of urgency intervene, to save students the needless frustrations.
Osemele, who hails from Ika North-East in Delta State, narrated his personal experience, attributing his perceived intimidation and victimization to racism and oppression. His narration:
“My continued denial of a review by the management runs contrary to the university policy which provides that complaints should be concluded within 20 days, otherwise, the university shall inform the student about the change in time limit.
“The institution failed to work in line with its own policy out of discrimination, especially when the management sees victims under this category as coloured skin and treats them with disdain based on perceptions that the black man’s life or future does not matter.
“During COVID-19 time when most offices closed, I decided to add more knowledge to my degrees. I studied one academic calendar year from home during the lockdown. I have a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical/Production Engineering and a master’s degree in Engineering Management from Jonkoping University, Sweden.
“I started my practice learning with the University of Stirling assigned placement in a local authority on July 4, 2022. It ended on December 23, 2022. Director of Practice assigned to a practice educator, a link worker and me and of which we had a practice agreement. I was permitted to submit my final report/coursework on January 29, 2023.
“But because I opposed breach of practice agreement and reported it to the university, the director started working in collusion with the practice educator and the link worker, to plan how to withdraw my qualification in Social Work. This was done even when I still had 50 days to submit my coursework for assessment.
“I was constantly bullied, harassed and threatened with failure. No one is willing to do something about it for more than eight months now. I have produced a documentary evidence in form of secret emails that the Director of Practice and my tutor wrote to my practice educator to fail me, dated December 1, 2022. Yet the management is not willing to take action.
“The university discriminated against my nationality by decorating me as an international student whereas I had all the requirements (including residency in Scotland for three years and EU citizenship) as opposed to a home student.
“The challenge made me suffer as many students were preparing for their studies having received their appropriate admission status, I was busy running up and down, writing letters upon letters to the university for weeks to no avail.
“Not until I wanted to escalate the matter to the Students Hub, before the university made a U-Turn. That was a red flag to me. But I was still not sure whether majority of the university staffs would act likewise. So, I continued with my studies.
“I was constantly harassed. It was a horrible experience. First week of October 2022, a fellow student who was also doing her practice learning in the same hall with me, asked me for a favour to help confirm the dates of our meetings at school. We agreed to do so during a lunch break.
“In less than 25 minutes of the break time, my link worker rushed into our midst and called me out immediately. I thought there was a crisis or that a service user was in a difficult situation that required urgent attention. I abandoned my fellow student and followed my link worker to my table and we sat down.
“Surprisingly, she threatened that she was going to ensure that I fail the placement at the end. This happened not withstanding that ordinarily I have at least one hour to enjoy my break just like every other member of the team.
“At that point, I did not worry because I had not done anything wrong that would warrant failure of my placement. However, I started being vigilant. Everybody was allowed one-hour break per day but I was denied this right. Consequently leading to a threat with failure by my link worker.
“In November 2022, I started feeling unwell to the notice of my link worker. We agreed that I should take some days off from my holiday to look after my health.
“Meanwhile, I was supporting my link worker to present maintenance payment to a young child and my holiday fell into November 21, 2022, that I ought to support this young child with the money.
“My link worker knew that I was not going to be able to support her to present the money on November 21, 2022, given that she consented to my holiday to take care of my health.
“I observed that the threat for failure from my link worker was not a joke from the following events. First, my link worker and team manager raised concerns over my inability to come from my holiday (November 21, 2022) and present a maintenance payment to a young child.
They reported it to my practice educator, which he also documented as a practice learning reflection, regardless being aware that it was improper to do so.
“For reminding the team manager and the link worker that my holiday was approved and formal, they made it a big issue in the office.
“The team manager and link worker secretly scheduled me on an eight-hour duty role as opposed to four-hour duty role as stated in the practice agreement. This was another breach of practice agreement.
“They raised big a issue that I must carry out an eight-hour duty role for the team on my study day, which was on a Tuesday. Meanwhile, Tuesdays are expressly stated in my practice agreement to be my study days and the maximum hours I could work was four.
“The team did not inform me or seek my consent during the plan to schedule me for an eight-hour duty role on my study day. The team manager and my link worker also made it to be a big concern which my practice educator also documented as a reflection.
“They did not allow me to explain. They concluded and my practice educator was neither transparent nor critical in the approach. He unreasonably abducted the concerns outright, having seen that the victim is Black.
“Again, I noticed that the team manager became harsh to me. Each time I did a piece of work she would allege that I did not do it. I kept using my time to explain afresh almost all the work that I did. At the end, the service users and their families confirmed my work to be exceptional.
“When the trouble became too much, I reflected on the threat of failure and reported the incident to social work and Director of Practice. In my email of December 8, 2022, I reported the ugly experiences of harassment and breach of practice agreement to the Director of Practice and my tutor and requested a meeting to address them.
“I also requested the university should invite the team manager and my link worker to the meeting. However, the director refused. Thereafter, the practice educator recommended a pass to the university. But the Director of Practice learning used her powers and connections to suspend my qualification without justification.
“She went further to work in collusion with the team manager and the link worker to falsify information and smuggled it into my record without my consent, of which it was used to withdraw my qualification.
“I have produced proof of this to the university and it appears that it has acknowledged the truth. However, since February 2023, the university failed to perform a 20-day job even after eight months. This is inconsistent with its policy.”
Osemele pledged to remain a law-abiding citizen and a resident in Scotland. He appealed to relevant authorities, home and abroad, the general public to step in getting justice.
