Princewill Odidi|8 February 2016|7:20am
It is important that the state Government make the payments of gratuity to retirees and stipends to CRS students overseas a priority.
These retirees can be anyone's parents. They served the state all their lives, the state cannot pretend not to understand their plight. So many die attempting to get paid and some still live in rented houses after serving the state for so many years.
To most, their gratuity is the only opportunity they have to put a roof over their heads they can call their own. We don't need to wait until they demonstrate publicly before we feel their pain.
We are left to wonder if the presidential bail out funds excluded retirees which I doubt.
We cannot continue to paint and give the world an impression of progress in our state when before our own eyes our parents are dying slowly.
I also respectfully request the Governor to consider sending stipends and fees to CRS students overseas who are on scholarships.
In Most foreign countries, with a student visa you cannot work, so the children of the poor who got scholarship to school overseas are the worst hit as the money from the state is their only source of income.
Most of these students Their parents back home cannot support them, unlike the children of the rich that receive support from their parents back home.
It is important that the Governor does not turn a blind eye to their needs.
Please, Governor AYADE, let us see the humane and compassionate character you talk about, settle our parents their gratuity and remember our stranded students in far away lands.
For every day that passes, a retiree passes on, or a foreign student goes hungry.
Princewill Odidi
Is a Development Consultant who writes from Atlanta
