Along a dusty, rubble-strewn street on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital stands the “Okay Centre”, a colonnaded, dun and ochre building that is the business address of an educational consultant linked to the University of Greater Manchester (UGM). On Sundays, the two-storey building teems with worshippers attending services held by Christian pastors whose posters decorate the Okay Centre’s exterior.
But today is a Wednesday. No one is walking through the metal gate, which is fringed with barbed wire. The building is deserted. There is no sign of the educational consultant and his firm’s name doesn’t appear in the entryway.
This dead end in Abuja is another twist in our effort to find Emmanuel Anyata Ajah, one of two men at the center of a scholarship program that is part of UGM’s rebranding as a destination for international students. When 128 postgrads from Ebonyi State in southeastern Nigeria arrived in Bolton in February to begin master’s programmes in engineering and medical sciences, they were welcomed by vice chancellor George Holmes.
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