Funeral Service Of Mrs. Roseline Akabueze

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PRESIDENT BUHARI PERSONALLY NEGOTIATED LOANS FOR PROJECTS THAT CONCERN THE SOUTHEAST – OSINBAJO

“Concerning the second Niger Bridge and the east-west road and several of these projects, I want to say that the President himself went to China to negotiate the loan for the second Niger Bridge”.

REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE FUNERAL SERVICE OF MRS. ROSELINE AKABUEZE AT ST. GABRIEL CATHOLIC CHURCH, IFITEDUNU, ANAMBRA STATE ON 29TH SEPTEMBER, 2017

PROTOCOL

We are here to celebrate the life of our dear mother, and we are here as the friends of the Akabueze family; Ben and his brothers and sisters.

Ben Akabueze as you know is a very unique individual, and I believe that perhaps, there is some water in this town, Ifitedunu, where I think he must have drank some of it because he has shown himself as a great Nigerian.

He worked with us in Lagos State as Commissioner under the administrations of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and then under Mr Raji Fashola. He worked continuously for almost ten years, perhaps one of the longest serving Commissioners in the history of Lagos State.

So, when a person who is not an indigene of a state, serves for so long, then he must be a very special person indeed and the President, Muhammadu Buhari, thought it fit to appoint him first as Special Adviser on Planning and now as Director-General of the Budget Office for the Federation.  So, this is a very special gentleman indeed, and I am happy that he is someone in whom we are very proud of. I am happy to be here in his village, to look around.

I want to just thank my Lord Bishop, Paulinus Eze Okafor, for the very wise words that he spoke today and I want to say that, definitely we have a listening President and a President who is fair-minded. All of what you have said, I intend to convey to Mr President.

I am sure you are aware that the President believes in religious freedom and respect of the people’s right to worship. I am aware that his lordship was around when Mr President and I attended the Catholic Bishop conference in Abuja where he said certain things and made certain pledges which he has kept to, and one of those pledges is to respect the freedom of everyone to worship, and that he has kept.

One of the most important things about the President is that he a very fair-minded person and I believe that he very partial to this state in particular, and I believe that he loves this State, and I will tell you why.

In 2003, when he first ran for office, his running mate then was Senator Chuba Okadibo an indigene of this State; the second time he ran, his running mate was Chief Edwin Ume-Ezoeke, also an indigene of Anambra State. I think he has a very special affection for this State.

I want to emphasize that one of the cardinal principles of the President is fairness, and my Lord Bishop said so many things and many proverbs about this and I will like to say a proverb around it too.

In my place, our people say that the person that shares the meat is always suspected; so, it is not surprising at all that because he is the one sharing the meat at this time, he would face a lot of criticisms and he must be suspected.

But I want to tell you the reason why it is even so. I sat with him one day and some members of National Assembly came to him and said that how come those of them from this part of the country had no senior Minister in the cabinet, they said that in Katsina State, there is no senior Minister and that is his own state, From Kaduna State no senior Minister, from Sokoto State, no senior Minister, Yobe State, no senior Minister, yet these were States that voted for him overwhelmingly. They said there were other States with senior Ministers, like in Anambra, Abia and the entirety of the South East, only Imo has a junior Minister which is the Minister of State for Education.

The President could not answer, but he told them that, he chose people on the basis of whom he thought was competent to run a particular ministry, but the people were not satisfied. So, many times, when things are shared, people will not be satisfied, but we must be guided by one principle, as you have said your Lordship, justice.

Every time we talk about fairness, we must talk about justice; when we talk about unity, we must talk about justice and I believe that is the fair thing to do.

But sometimes it always doesn’t seem fair, depending on the side we are looking at it from but I want to assure you that President Muhammadu Buhari is a man who in his heart wants to be fair and wants to be very just and I believe that all that you have said will help and are important and we will continue to consider every one of those things.

The unity of the country is very important for all of us and I am sure just as my Lord said, we are all committed to this unity, but we also want fairness and justice.  We must look at ourselves as one big united country.

Look at all of us gathered here now, I didn’t need a visa to come here, you will also not need a visa to come to my hometown in Ogun state; free movement of our people is important and we must make sure that we keep this country together and our people are safe. I am sure that by God’s grace our country will remain one and united.

About the request concerning the second Niger Bridge and the east-west road and several of these projects, I want to say that the President himself went to China to negotiate the loan for the second Niger Bridge.

Aside from that, the Lagos-Calabar rail line passing through States in this region, the President also, personally, went to negotiate the loan. What we can do is to appeal to our members at the National Assembly to put money in the budget so that we can achieve all of these things.

I believe that by the grace of God we would see the completion of all of these projects; even the Onitsha road that we have been complaining about, we will ensure that it is built.

I want to thank you again, your lordship, for accommodating us and giving us time despite the delay.

Thank you very much for your warm welcome and I pray that the almighty God will give you longer lives than our mother who we are burying today, and I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will prosper you and prosper all of us.