Egbemudia Jr., son of two-time former governor of old Bendel State, Samuel Egbemudia, has revealed how his father dug his grave before his death.
Egbemudia said his father, who died a year ago, also directed that he should be buried within seven days of his death and should not be taken to the mortuary.
Speaking with Vanguard, he also disclosed that his father shared his property among his family members before dying.
According to him, “Daddy dug his own grave and directed us before he died that he must be buried within seven days and his body must not be taken to the mortuary.
“He shared all his property to his children which some of them disagreed with and this wanted to cause some crisis within the family but the matter was sorted out.
“It was more or less like a distraction but everybody is moving on now. I can tell you that what I learnt from him has been keeping this family together.
“First and foremost, one thing I learnt from him was patience. When he was alive, people said a lot of negative things about him. He always told me let them come and say it to me directly. Similarly, I hear a lot of negative things about my person, but rarely do they say it to my face. He left all of us with assets and having taught us economic management, we are all trying to cope and not to be distracted.
“I tell my younger ones, respect begets respect. I respect everybody and also expect respect from others. I like being open and I tell them to be open to me too. One thing I believe in life is that if a man is rich and the people around him are poor, then that person is poor. That is why I try as much as possible to make people around me happy, just like my father.
“I am not a greedy person but I am okay. Like my father would always say, poverty is the worst form of violence that you can see from anybody. When somebody is poor and cannot pay medical bills, cannot feed, it is hell.
“Poverty is hell and it is a killer and as far as I am concerned, if I have N10 and my neighbour doesn’t have at all, I am ready to give out N5. That was what I learnt from my father. He hated seeing people suffer.”
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