Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Sunday implored Nigerians, especially those who knew his late father, Alhaji Ibrahim Bayo Ademola Fashola, to propagate the virtues of deep love for humanity and very strong moral values which he espoused during his lifetime.
Governor Fashola, who spoke while playing host to members of the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, led by the Acting National Secretary, Dr. Charles Remi Akitoye, who paid him a condolence visit at Lagos House, Marina, while thanking the visitors, declared, “The only other point to make is to implore those of you who knew my father to do whatever little you can to continue to propagate the ideals that his life history represented;”.
Governor Fashola, who reiterated some of the virtues that his father displayed while alive including a very deep love for humanity and very strong moral values, as has been testified by many people about him, declared, “Those were things that were never worth the trouble for him when it divided humanity or when it devalued honour and so for me I hope that those are ideals that we can all connect to as we seek better side of the promise for our State and our nation”.
Urging all and sundry to put honour and value ahead of every other thing, Governor Fashola declared, “Everything we strive to build would stand or fall in the presence or absence of those virtues. They start from the family and they are translated to the community and from the community they spread into much more formal government structures like states, local governments, political parties and in that way we can express a stronger side of who we are as Nigerians”.
He further noted, “I know there are very many people in this country and in this state who believe in those virtues and those values; values where, in the midst of all that may be wrong, they still stand for the good course”.
Governor Fashola thanked the delegation for the courtesy of the visit and expressed gratitude to the PDP National Chairman for the honour he accorded to the memory of the late Alhaji Fashola through the Committee.
His words, “On behalf of the Fashola family, we thank you very much and we thank Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and those of you who have also taken the responsibility to personally bear the condolence message. It is a great honour for our father and our family and on their behalf I express gratitude to you”.
He prayed that the Almighty God would honour members of the delegation both collectively and individually in the way they had honoured the memory of his father.
Speaking earlier, leader of the delegation and Acting National Secretary, Dr. Remi Akitoye said the Committee was sent by the National Chairman of the Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, whom he said was very a close friend to late Alhaji Fashola, to express his deep condolence to the Governor and the Fashola Family over the passage.
Extolling the virtues of the late Alhaji Fashola, the Acting National Secretary noted that the deceased was a strict disciplinarian and also a lover of children recalling how the late octogenarian used to rebuke them as children if he caught them misbehaving adding that immediately after; he would offer them sweets.
“I benefitted from his disciplinary attitude because I remember in those days we were children in school, he would call us to order and scold us when we misbehaved. But he would soon after call us back and offer us sweets. I learnt from it that he rebuked us because he loved us”, Akitoye said.
He prayed, on behalf of the PDP National Chairman, for the repose of the soul of the departed and that the Almighty Allah would grant the family the fortitude to bear the loss.
Also among the delegation were Chief (Mrs.) Aduke Maina, State Chairman of the PDP, Captain Shelle (rtd), Chief Ola Apena, Deputy State Chairman, Chief (Mrs. ) Bukky Ajomo, Mr. Ebitare Otrofanowei, representing South South, Mrs. Agnes Igbanoi and Alhaji Bode Oyedele among others while the State Commissioner for Home Affairs and Culture, Hon. Oyinlomo Danmole, joined the Governor in receiving the delegation.
