By Our Correspondent
The Warri South council chairman, Dr Michael Tidi on Tuesday celebrated his 40th birthday with the elderly people in the council area, calling on all well meaning Nigerians to always identify with the elderly in the society.
The Council Chairman together with his family and friends who donated food items to the inmates of the Sacred Heart Cathedral Old People’s Home in Warri, said he decided to celebrate with the aged people on his birthday because of humanity.
Some of the items he donated included, bags of rice and beans, cartons of imdomie, tubers of yams, loaves of bread, wrappers, plastic chairs, etc.
Speaking to newsmen after the donation, Tidi said, “what really informed this decision is the fact that you will agree with me that the economy is in shambles and a lot of people have lost their lives and so many others have lost their jobs.
“So I believe it will unwise to throw extravaganze wild parties and living ostentatious lifestyle at this time when so many businesses have gone down all over the world.
“There are some persons who are seemingly forgotten in the society. I am talking about the aged people and motherless children around us.
“So today I have decided to visit these old people to first of all identify with them and see how I and my family and well wishers could support and ameliorate there plight and suffering worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. Secondly, it is to partake in their longevity and grace of life. This is why I and my family and well wishers are here.”
The Warri South Council Boss said the gesture was going to be an annual ritual.
“I have made a commitment that this gesture is going to be a yearly thing. But that is not to say that when there is festivities I will not come around.
“For me there is no better way to say thank you to my grandmother who raised me and gave me good upbringing through her love and care, than to identify with the aged in the society.
He also advised the well to do in the society to take out time and identify with the aged and orphans in the society.
“Everything is not about politics. They should put politics aside and look at our humanity. What i have done today, I want others to take a queue from it.
“It’s not only the aged, we have children, widows and other vulnerable people in the society who are forgotten. They should use their God given endowment to identify with these people. After all it’s our common humanity that actually counts at the end of the day,” Tidi said.
Rev. Father Benedict Ikutegbe, who received the items on behalf of the inmates thanked Tidi for the gesture.
