> The member representing Idemili Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Charlse Chinwendu Odedo has criticised the Anambra state governor, Mr Peter Obi over high exorbitant school fees in the state that has driven most children out of schools because their parents were incapable of paying.
> Odedo has therefore called on the state’s citizens to vote in Senator Chris Ngige as the next governor in the Nov 16 election, for a free qualitative education as exemplified by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the defunct Old Western Region in the fifties and sixties.
> He said this yesterday at Nnobi when he unveiled a N50million scholarship scheme for three hundred (300) beneficiaries who are indigenes drawn from secondary and tertiary institutions from seventeen(17) communities across his constituency.
> He pointed out that a situation where students of the federal unversities pay about forty thousand naira only while their counterparts in the Anambra state university pay as much as one hundred and fifty thousand naira is worrisome and unacceptable.
> The people’s representative noted that high school fees in the state if not urgently
> checked would compound the already chaotic social scene in the state. He said the growing army of out of school pupils and undergraduates in addition to the teeming unemployed youth have threatening grave consequences to all citizens.
> He lamented that at a time the students were being forced out of schools due to high impossible fees, Obi has been busy dolling out ridiculous sums of money to individuals businessmen, acolytes and inexplicable associates for suspiciously questionable and doubtful aims. He wondered why Anambra has the highest school fees in the country, collects the highest security vote in the country and still remains the first among the most insecure and criminals infested state in the country.
> Obi, he pointed out was expected at this time to institute bursary awards to assist parents to take pressure off the back of parents some of who pass through harrowing experiences to raise their children’s school fees.
> He described as very unfortunate situations where Anambra has the uncanny record of being the state with the highest school fees in the country, whereas other states that are not as bouyant as Anambra give bursary awards to their students , which he noted has a way of giving the students a sense of belonging.
> Throwing more light on the contents of his scholarship scheme which was flagged off jointly by Reps Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and The All Progressives Congress(APC) Anambra governorship candidate, Chris Ngige, Odedo said the scheme covers all the levels of education and that N16million was just given out to the first batch of beneficiaries and that the scheme has been structured to run for three years which would gulp a whooping N50m within the period. Odedo also gave out three cars to three lucky constituents at the occasion.
> In his speech, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tambuwal commended Odedo for the scheme which he said has shown Nigerians that the members of the House of Reps are
> group of people who are very committed to their well being.
> The speaker urged his colleaques in the National Assembly to emulate Hon Odedo who is passionate about making democratic dividends to his constituents pointing out that the House agreed on making national development and the welfare of constituents top priority.
> Senator Ngige in speech described Odedo as a pace setter, admitting that the young politician has taught him some home lesson in the continuous empowerment of constituents. he said he would expand his own scholarship scheme to cover all the local government areas in his constituency in line with the good work Hon Odedo is doing. He promised to extend the scheme to the twenty-one council areas in the state if he makes it to the government house after the November 16 governorship election.
> Dr Mike Omenugha, the former President General of Nnobi Welfare Association said the that the law maker has written his name in gold and pointed that the Odedo’s constituents will continue to support and encourage him to go for as many times as he like in the
> House of Reps after he will then graduate to the upper chamber.
> A beneficiary Miss Victoria Adimba-Collins, a 200 Level Philosophy student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University from Ideani, Idemili North LGA thanked the lawmaker for his kind gesture and wished other politicians and the affluent would emulate him.She stated that the scholarship would really help her concentrate on her studies as well as take presure of the back of her parents who has her sibblings to cater for .
