Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Wednesday recounted
how his late wife, Stella Obasanjo, visited several world leaders to seek his
release from prison.
Recall that Obasanjo was on March 17, 1995 arrested by the
military administration of late General Sani Abacha and convicted of being part
of a planned coup to overthrow the military government.
Obasanjo, who was, however, elected civilian president in
1999 spoke in Benin City at the commissioning of the rebuilt and expanded
250-bed Stella Obasanjo Hospital by the Edo State Government.
The hospital was constructed and named after the first lady
of Nigeria by the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki.
The former president, who spoke as a guest speaker, said his
wife did everything humanly possible to get him out of prison.
According to him: “When I was in prison, that woman left no
stone unturned. She went all over the world to seek my release. She went to
Japan, she went to the entire Europe, she went to the Vatican, she went to
Latin America, she went through Africa, she left no stone unturned for my
release and God answered her prayers and the prayers of all those praying for
me and I came out of prison alive.
“What could I do? I thought, coming out of prison, I’ve had
it all. When we were planning for my wife’s 60th birthday anniversary, we never
had that birthday anniversary before she died.
“It was very painful to me in particular and to all of us in
my family. You can appreciate how thankful I am to you for doing this in her
honor.
“I thank all the people of Edo State because I had a woman
who made tremendous contributions to the achievements of my government.”
Obasanjo described his late wife as a woman of substances
that contributed tremendously to the achievements of his government.
He averred that the late Stella deserved any honour that can
be given to her when she was alive and posthumously.
Speaking further, the former president tasked political
office holders to embark on provision of human capital development for their
citizens, noting that no government can be described as successful without
human capital development.
He said one of the major human capital developments is food
and nutrition security.
He noted that without food citizens would not be healthy to
enjoy the infrastructure development.
“Whatever we do in our responsibility as chief executives,
either at the national level, at the state level or even at the local
government level, one thing that is very, very important is human capital
development.
“I will take three essentials of human capital development.
First is food and nutrition security. You can’t do much on an empty stomach.
“The second, of course, is health, and food and nutrition
security has something to do with that. Health is wealth, they say. A healthy
people is a wealthy nation, because, if you are dead, you can no longer be
counted among those who are healthy.
“And, I dare to say that health is everything. You must have
health to be able to be alive and do other things. And the third, of course, is
education,” he added.
Obasanjo who commended Governor Godwin Obaseki for
rebuilding the hospital noted that the hospital which started as Mother and
Child hospital has now been expanded and upgraded to a specialist hospital with
a cutting edge technology.
In her speech before commissioning the hospital, Dame
Patience Goodluck Jonathan, thanked the Governor Obaseki-led administration for
keeping the memory of the late Stella Obasanjo alive by reconstruction and
upgrading the hospital that would not only serve the people of Edo State but
the entire country.
On his part, Governor Obaseki, said the upgrade of the
hospital to a world-class hospital was prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic when
it was used as an isolation centre for patients.
Obaseki said during that period, the hospital became a vital
300-bed isolation centre with an additional 20-bed emergency isolation unit.
He said the hospital is equipped with the state-of-the-art
modern medical facilities that can treat any ailments.
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