Jonathan, Anyaoku in Ikenne, lament death of HID

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NIGERIA: FORMER President Goodluck Jonathan and ex-Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, on Wednesday lamented the death of Chief (Mrs.) Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo.

The duo, who paid condolence visit to the Awolowo family home in Ikenne, Ogun State, at different times, said that the country had lost a rare mother of the nation.

They were received by the children of the deceased and other family members who were present during the visit.

Jonathan said the late wife of the former Premier of the old Western

Region was a mother to all whose passage would be mourned by all.

The ex-President, who said it would have been to the joy of all not for HID to die, but stressed that death was inevitable.

“So, we know it would come for all of us one day and here we are today, we have been coming here because the former secretary to the government did mention that the last time I came here it was associated with the last presidential electioneering campaign,” Jonathan said.  “But before I’ve been here severally to see mama in one way or the other.”

“We are mourning her today, me and my wife; we are not mourning because mama has passed on,” he said, adding:  “For me, we believe that it’s a rare privilege to add extra 29 years to the Biblical two scores and 10; it’s not easy. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have been mourning but mama was a rare mother.”

“She was a woman of virtue described in the Bible and she was a mother to all of us; a  mother her milk of kindness we still need, her milk of encouragement we still need, her milk of advice we still need and today she’s no more with us,” Jonathan further stressed.

He also said: “She just had to be the direct mother of few but she’s a mother to all. We shall mourn more than even the direct children would.  We pray that the Almighty God who made it possible for her in the first place to come to this world and play the role she played surely we should be touched.”

Anyaoku said that the late woman’s contributions to the nation’s independence would not be forgotten in a hurry.

He said that HID’s support for her husband, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who he described as one of the nation’s founding fathers, was remarkable.

Anyaoku said that that he had no opportunity to know HID deeply, but had the privileged to recognise her attributes and personality since her death going by the accolades showered on her.

“I did not have the privilege of knowing her, but I have a great privilege of being a keen fan and student of the sage,” the ex-Secretary General said, adding: “The country had a very handful of people that you will describe as the founding fathers of the country; to me Awolowo stood out.”

He further stressed: “I have followed very closely all the comments made since her passage and even before her passage, I came to recognise her attributes and her personality. There is nothing too much that can be said about Mama.

“Mama was a matriarch of her nation not just of the Awolowo family. I called her a truly noble lady. A lady who contributed to Nigeria’s independence,” Anyaoku said.

“She provided inestimable support for one of the founding fathers and through that she became a true source to most of our nationalists in the country,” he also said.