The current fad among parents in Nigeria is overseas education for their wards. Many go to any length to raise the money, depleting the national foreign reserve in the process. The reason for this rush used to be as a status symbol. That was until the deterioration of standards in Nigerian schools due to underfunding if not outright made Nigerian school shadows of their old selves. Compounding this scenario is the fact that for most part of the year, the universities are on lockdown as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) continue to feud with the federal government over sundry issues. At some of those times, the students can spend a whole academic year at home doing nothing.

The risk in this frenetic search for overseas schools is that most parents expose their wards to dangers that are avoidable by sending them to countries where standards are not good enough to justify the huge financial outlay or the environment is hostile to international students.

These two conditions apply in the case of Northern Cyprus where students’ lives are in mortal danger and their countries of origin are almost helpless in terms of assisting them in their hour of need. The country was alarmed recently when the chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Erewa- Dabiri, announced to a bewildered nation that Northern Cyprus is a dangerous place for Nigerian students. For effect, she said that Nigeria has no diplomatic relations with this region and several Nigerian students are said to have lost their lives under mysterious circumstances in previous years while studying in Northern Cyprus. The authorities in that region have done nothing about these killings and the murders are treated nonchalantly.

Northern Cyprus, officially known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, is a region that is not recognised by the United Nations (UN) as a country, as such there is very little the federal government can do to get justice for the Nigerian students who have died and also to protect those who are still studying in that country.

After a thorough investigations by a media platform, www.nigeriabroad.com, the situation is more complicated than it seems with several factors reported as reasons for the death of these students. These include misleading student visa packages sold by travel agents, criminality and natural causes, rivalry with locals.  According to the media site, unconfirmed reports state that over 100 Nigerian students have died since 2016.

With regard to the misleading visa packages, it is reported that travel agents market the region and its universities as a good place for work and study where the prospective students can eventually earn enough money to pay for their education. However, this is said to be untrue as these students find out they cannot earn to complete payment of tuition, which eventually leads to them being withdrawn from the universities. With nothing to do, they engage in criminal activities and get into trouble with authorities and locals which could lead to their deaths.

It wasn’t until Justice Amina Ahmed Bello, a judge in a Kaduna State High Court cried out for justice at the death of her son, late Ibrahim Khaleel Bello and other Nigerian students killed in Northern Cyprus that the issue was taken even more seriously, with NiDCOM issuing a warning for Nigerian students to steer clear of the area.

Northern Cyprus is a de facto independent republic situated in the northern part of Cyprus, within the internationally recognised borders of the Republic of Cyprus. It announced its independence in 1983, nine years after the Turkey invaded Cyprus. It is an independent region recognised only by Turkey. However, the UN recognises the de jure sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus over the entire island. Reports state that Pakistan and Gambia have signaled interest towards recognising it as a country, but has not officially done so.

This newspaper believes that just blacklisting Northern Cyprus is not enough. The injustices of these murders should be put right and culprits punished with some form of compensation given to families of those whose lives were cut short. An effort should be made by the federal government to initiate discussions with the government of Turkey, seeing as Nigeria has good bilateral relations with that country and many of its students study there in safety.

In the meantime, seeing as Nigeria has no bilateral relations with this region, and the fact that it is not recognised by the UN, we urge parents planning to send their children abroad to avoid this region, as well as other countries that are high risk areas.