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Former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori has recalled how he wept openly on live television when his late mother, Madam Comfort Ibori was being prepared for burial in October, 2004.
Speaking in Osogbo, Osun State at the weekend during the burial ceremony of the mother of the Director General, Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), Mr Akin Olateru, Ibori who said he broke down in tears while paying tribute to his mother despite being the governor of Delta State then, emphasized the love bond that exists between mothers and their children.
While saying the strong bond could not be separated, the former governor urged every child to always show love and support for their parents irrespective of their status while they are still alive.
His words: “My father died in 1996 and I remember taking his body for burial, I wasn’t a governor then, but when my mummy died, I was already a man and even a governor and you know how this our politics is, I could not cry in the public, you can only cry in the bedroom and that was what happened.
“On the day I was to bury my mother, on live television, I couldn’t hold it back, I shed tears. When I got to the place where my mother was, I started sobbing, I was crying. That is the depth of motherhood.
“That is not to say you don’t have regards for your father, but the kind of love that is between a mother and her children is different from that of the father. The love of a mother is a phenomenon that can be hardly explained.”
Congratulating Olateru for being alive to bury his mother and prayed for the entire family to continue to live in peace, Ibori declared: “It is a dream for most of us to bury our parents. When Akin (Engr. Olateru) called me that the mother was not doing very well, I told him to just keep praying to God, but if it doesn’t happen, prepare your mind. So, when he called me to say Mama was gone, I congratulated him.
Also speaking in an interview with journalists, the NSIB DG described his late mother as a jewel of inestimable value.
He went down the memory lane of how his late mother sold all she had to ensure he went to school, recalling that when he gained an admission into the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria in 1986, the mother who was a nurse, sold her only car at N2,000 to pay his first tuition fee.
This action, he said led to the ridiculing of her mother by her mates, but he gave God the glory for all he had achieved since 1986 till date.
“If I have to come back again, I still wish she would be my mother because without her, to be honest with you, I don’t think I will be where I am today. She sold her only car to pay my first one year fee in Zaria (NCAT). It was just N2,000 in 1986. She became a laughing stock among her mates. They mocked her that what will that child come out to be and she always say ‘by the special grace of God that child will come out well.’”
Among the dignitaries present at the burial include: Nigeria’s minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, the Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Honourable Nnolim Nnaji, the former Rector of Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Captain Adebayo Araba, former governors, ministers and representatives from the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
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