Edo celebrates Ogbemudia at 84

 

Elder statesman and two-time governor of Midwest and Bendel states, Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, was yesterday celebrated by eminent citizens of Edo State, including the state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who organized a dinner to honour him as he turned 84.

Speaking at the colourful event held at the ultra-modern New Era Secondary School, Benin, now renamed Samuel Ogbemudia Secondary School by the Edo State government, Ogbemudia who was visibly overwhelmed with joy, called on people of the state to vote massively for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the September 28 election in the state, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, in order for him to continue the good works of Governor Oshiomhole.
His words: “I do not know how to start this speech. Firstly, because two days ago when the governor told me that there would be a banquet, I thought it was a joke and I never knew he would be able to bring together so many people as we have seen here today. So, I do believe that if he can get this number of people to vote for Obaseki, I think the victory is already assured.”
He said Obaseki has what it takes to move the state to the next level and therefore urged people from across the three senatorial districts to mobilize the electorate for the gubernatorial election.
The former governor used the occasion to relive how his administration established New Era Secondary School to cater for the academic needs of young Edo children in dire need for development of their talents.
“It occurred to me that there ought to be a school where children coming of age could be trained and picked while they were still young. So, the idea of New Era occurred. As a military governor, I had the powers of the legislature and the executive combined in one. So within 24 hours, the decision to build New Era college had been taken and work commenced. That was New Era; and I am very happy that Comrade Oshiomhole came and decided to improve the quality of the building, for the school to function properly,” he said.
While appealing to the principal and management of the school to strive towards maintaining the school, Ogbemudia pointed out that the major problem confronting the nation’s institutions is the inability to imbibe the culture of maintenance and to make money out of such facilities.
He expressed appreciation to Oshiomhole for the honour done him, and commended the governor for the courageous decision to transform the school and for his numerous achievements in the state.
“There is nothing I can say now because Mark Anthony said in Julius Caeser, “I have come to bury Caesar and not to praise him. My mission here today is not to praise you but to catalogue your numerous achievements so that the verdict of history will be in your favour. You have done wonderfully well, nowhere in this state, nowhere in this region, in all the six geopolitical regions you can see a building like this built for a college. So, you have done wonderfully well. It is said that it is better to make history than to write it, because writing it is a professional job but making history is something of determination. You have made history today and you will always be remembered, your memory will never fail,” he said.
On the forthcoming governorship election, he said: “September 28 is a day of decision, a day in which we will decide our future, we have two options either to remain as we are and nothing happens and two years hence we will be looking for boat to travel on the road because it would have been flooded, or you work hard to get the right person to carry on where Comrade Oshiomhole left it.
“So, that option is staring us in the face, but for me, I choose the option to get somebody who understands good governance to carry on from where Comrade Oshiomhole is leaving. This month of September is the last September in a long series of years that Oshiomhole will be a governor; by the next September he will be a member of my club, ex-governors. Therefore, he had done enough, he had left sufficient evidence for historians to appreciate and many years hence they will be falling over each other to determine what made you do this or that, and I think you have had a wonderful wisdom and that wisdom will live forever.”
From Tony Osauzo,
Benin

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