After I had gained admission for a Ph.D program, I had to abandon it after seven years because of so many hurdles that arose and made it impossible for me to continue.
The first hurdle came from my employer: my Director General, DG, at the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, at the time, who denied me and other colleagues promotion for ten years, also put across a lot of hurdles on my path to ensure that I never completed the program.
There was a committee he set up to look into applications for study leave, shortlist and forward recommendations to him for approval. My source in the committee told me, one day, that he was perplexed at how the DG kept on skipping my name whenever the list was forwarded to him: he just ticked the ones he liked and returned the list in spite of the fact that I had met all the criteria for approval.
So, I decided to take a risk and continue with the program secretly, without approval, since it was research based and course work was not required.
When I thought I had found a way around it, he transferred me to a place far away from the school. Still, I persevered and continued with my studies from my new location. Somehow, he found out again and transferred me to another place further than my new location, after about two years. When I decided to quit, he was, mercifully removed as the DG. Excitedly, I decided to continue with the program, but other unforeseen hurdles arose.
I suddenly came up against corrupt departmental staff at the university, who wanted money before they did their work. They even, at a time, hid my departmental file and said there was nobody to go and search for it. They advised that I open another one and again pay the departmental charges. And they were openly encouraged by the course co-ordinator who said, to my face, that they shouldn't pity me because my organization had money.
Then, the same course co-ordinator, who happened to be my supervisor, made me open a file where I put my proposal because he said he wouldn't accept it by email as it would require him buying fuel to start his generator to download and print it. Whenever I went to ask whether he had gone through my proposal, he would ask me to go through a stack of files to find mine - sometimes I would find it after so much effort and waste of time. At other times, he would say he might have taken it home - after which he would give me another appointment as he was unable to look at it. And I normally had to cover about 400 kilometers to reach the school. The man seldom answered my phone call nor responded to my emails.
One of our staff who just completed his masters told me they had to contribute money to pay for accommodation and feeding for the external examiner!
Then, the same course co-ordinator, who happened to be my supervisor, made me open a file where I put my proposal because he said he wouldn't accept it by email as it would require him buying fuel to start his generator to download and print it. Whenever I went to ask whether he had gone through my proposal, he would ask me to go through a stack of files to find mine - sometimes I would find it after so much effort and waste of time. At other times, he would say he might have taken it home - after which he would give me another appointment as he was unable to look at it. And I normally had to cover about 400 kilometers to reach the school. The man seldom answered my phone call nor responded to my emails.
One of our staff who just completed his masters told me they had to contribute money to pay for accommodation and feeding for the external examiner!
At this stage, I got fed up and threw in the towel after seven years of trying. I just felt I wasn't destined to complete the program.