Write a letter to your elder brother working abroad describing the hardship you and your parents are facing at home and requesting him to give some financial assistance.

DITTO

It’s a pity you haven’t replied to any of the letters I’ve written to you in recent time. At least, I’ve written two within the  last five weeks, but who knows what must have happened to the letters in transit. This is no when one considers the deplorable postal system in the country in recent years. I’m writing this letter mainly to describe the hardship my parents and I are currently facing here in Nigeria, and to request for financial assistance from you.

In fact things have change generally in the country from what they used to be. Our greatest hardship is lack of accommodation. Since December 1997, when both Dad and Mum were retrenched by their respective companies, they have remained jobless. Dad was given only a month to vacate his official residence at Ikoyi.  This threw the whole family into a wilderness of doubt as there was nowhere to pack to as my parents had least expected this. To worsen the situation, no gratuity was paid as Dad’s employers claimed that he borrowed the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand Naira two years before. We were unduly ejected from our five-bedroom flat at Ikoyi to nowhere in particular. When things got to the climax, we had to pack our belongings to our church at Agege. A lot of things were stone and damage and to the act that our properties were kept in an open space in the church. That was how my parents and I became tenants of circumstance in the church. We have become a laughing stock to the congregation as they often refer to us as homeless members of the church.

Another notable hardship is feeding. As I said before, Dad has borrowed more than he was entitled to as gratuity from hiscompany. He spent the money purchasing a plot of land at Ikoyi to build his own private house like some of his mates did but the whole idea backfired. This is because the land owners also sold the same plot of land to a military officer who had warned Dad to leave it for him or face the consequence. In fact the mater is still in court and Dad has no money to hire an experienced legal practitioner to defend him. The little savings my parents had before their ill-fated retrenchment has been spent on the land case and so no money to feed. We have no alternative but to fast like prophets. We now eat once or twice daily,. We now suffer from malnutrition according to our doctor’s diagnosis of our ailment last month. Only God knows when last I took milk, meat and rice because of their prices. Breakfast is now canceled.

My education has come to an abrupt end as I could not afford to register for the last SSCE. I was the only candidate who couldn’t register due to financial difficulty. My parents tried all they could but to no avail. Before I left the school abruptly, I owned school fees to the tune of fifty thousand Naira as I never paid a Kobo for two sessions. I’ve left school to work as a truck pusher at Daleko Market. Yet I had a dream of becoming  the first medical doctor not only in the family but in the entire village. Before I finally bowed out of school, I had no school uniform, no sandals, no books, even writing materials I couldn’t afford.

Brother, things have come to the point that we have no alternative but to turn to you for assistance. For now, you are our messiah. We have been pushed to the wall by economic crisis as a result of our parents’ unemployment. Both of them are now hypertensive as a result of too much thinking over peculiar domestic problems. For the first time, I now solicit your help – a financial  assistance to alleviate our problems which  have degenerated into a mess.

As at now we need money to rent at least a room and a parlor for accommodation, for me to go back and complete my secondary education; to feed and finally, money for Dad and Mum to embark on trading so that they can overcome their plight which has been prolonged by their unemployment. All these are their heart desires and they will be very happy if you could send a sum of five thousand dollars through the ‘Western Union Money Transfer’ of the First Bank. This is enough as our currency has been greatly devalued. It is now eighty Naira to a dollar. It will be my pleasure if you act fast before death will deal a blow on us all here. I hope your family is enjoying the U.S I Pray for good health and prosperity  for you and your family.