SAVES STRANDED RIVERS FOREIGN SCHOLARS WITH N712M

The new governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, may be turning to what primary school children loved to call one day one feat, instead of one day one trouble. As praises were high for clearing backlog of pensions, he cleared salaries. As if that was not enough, he mobilised N3Bn to rescue the dreaded Onne double carriage way where workers remained for over six hours a day. This brought instant love from the business community and investors.

Next, he moved to the Port Harcourt Port where the only road (Industrial Road) had since been forgotten and is about to flag off its reconstruction, sending wild jubilation there.

Students for Junior WAEC exams who failed to write in May are writing now. Primary health workers on strike for one year are back, etc. he promised to wipe away tears, and many say theirs have been wiped.

Now, the tears flowing in the UK and other foreign lands by Rivers foreign scholars have just been wiped. This is because parents of final year students of tertiary institutions abroad can now have a sigh of relief. The students who were sent overseas to study under the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), special scholarship by the Chibuike Amaechi’s administration, looked abandoned by both the then state government.

A statement by Opunabo Inko-Tariah, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media And Publicity, said all entreaties by the stranded students and their parents to Amaechi fell on deaf ears as the students stood the risk of being disallowed to sit for their final exams.

He said now, respite came when Wike ordered the immediate payment of the sum of N512m to offset the debts owed by the final year students to enable them sit for their final exams and eventually graduate.

The governor, he said, had earlier on paid the sum of N200m as part of the money owed by the students which brought the total sum paid by the Wike’s administration to N712m.

The gesture by the governor has elicited reactions from many who praised him for being sensitive to the plight of the students and their parents.

Respondents described the act as not just securing the future of the students, but that of the state as well since they are the future leaders, he said.

The Amaechi administration had been cash-strapped as monthly allocation fell from N28Bn to N6Bn in the face of gigantic projects. The past administration blamed this on political crisis in the state, the siege by the federal government, and looting by the past federal government.