President Goodluck Jonathan, former Military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, and the Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shema, were among dignitaries who snubbed the first Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Memorial Lecture organized in honour of the late president.
The lecture, which was organised by the Chemical Society of Nigeria at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, on Thursday witnessed a low turnout.
The organizer appointed Babangida to serve as the Chairman of the occasion, President Jonathan as the distinguished guest of honour, while Shema was to be the chief Host, but they all shunned the event.
All the 36 states governors, Senate President, David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives were also among the invited guests of honour who did not show up.
Apart from the guest lecturer, Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, who sent his Commissioner for Education, none of the them showed up or was dully represented.
Secretary to the Katsina State Government, Muntari Ibrahim, told the gathering he was standing in for IBB and Shema, Kastina State governor.
He said, “I am representing His Excellency, the executive Governor of Katsina State, Dr. Ibrahim Shema, and General Babangida who is our leader and former Head of States.”
Ibrahim, in his remarks on behalf of the State Governor said Chemistry was central to industrial transformation of any society.
He disclosed that the knowledge of chemistry served the late Umaru Yar’Adua well as he made judicious use of his academic background to offer solutions to Nigeria’s problems while alive.
In his own remarks, the Kwara State Governor eulogized the late President Yar’Adua for a distinct leadership lifestyle to the nation.
He said, “As a nation builder, Yar’Adua sought to run an inclusive government, one which accommodated all relevant geo-political interests and prioritised equity as opposed to sectional interests.
“For example, only an ardent believer in justice, rule of law and the state of equilibrium such as Yar’Adua could have engaged Niger Delta activists who were then involved in a violent campaign for resource control, and restored peace to a region which had known none for years.”
The late president was conferred with a posthumous Fellowship Award.
While receiving the award on behalf of his late brother, Colonel Abdulaziz Musa Yar’Adua, thanked the society for the Honour bestowed on the late President.
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