SHONEKAN WAS A MAN OF DESTINY, CHOSEN FOR HIS TIME, SAYS OSINBAJO
“He was the face of Nigerian free enterprise”
Former Head of the Interim National Government, the late Chief Ernest Shonekan, was a person of future who was chosen for his time.
In deed the previous Head of State proved by his life that future for one or for a nation is the manifest results of small selections made on a regular basis by strange individuals doing the perfect they will and persevering in goodness.
Those have been the phrases of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, in his remarks titled “A Life of Two great Halves Lived in Service: A tribute to Chief Ernest Adegunle Shonekan, GCFR”, on the State Funeral Service for the late elder stateman at the moment on the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos.
According to Prof. Osinbajo, “just as we would also be right to think of Nigeria as a nation of destiny, uniquely positioned to be a rallying point and an inspiration for the entire black race,” Chief Shonekan lived his life all the time acutely aware of, and motivated by a burden of responsibility, as a citizen of appreciable privilege, to offer again, both in his many philanthropic and civic pursuits or in public service.
BELOW IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE VICE PRESIDENT’S SPEECH:
SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE FUNERAL SERVICE FOR FORMER HEAD OF INTERIM NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, LATE ENERST SHONEKAN, GCFR, ON FRIDAY 4TH JANUARY, 2022, IN LAGOS.
A Life of Two nice Halves Lived in Service: A tribute to Chief Ernest Adegunle Shonekan, GCFR.
If ever a person may very well be mentioned to have lived a lifetime of two equally consequential halves, and in service, that man could be Chief Ernest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan, GCFR.
And so it transpired that inside the first 4 and a half a long time of his life, Chief Shonekan had established himself as one of many nation’s foremost company technocrats and a determine of renown within the boardrooms of many personal corporations: multinational and indigenous wherein he served as Chairman and Director.
It was on this place that he grew to become often called the face of Nigerian free enterprise because the UACN below his management absolutely developed from a buying and selling outfit to a producing colossus with pursuits in various sectors starting from agriculture and automotive industries to cosmetics, electronics and textiles, amongst many different areas.
Known within the enterprise neighborhood for his private integrity and reliability, and trusted within the corridors of political energy for his counsel and steerage by successive governments, Ernest Shonekan had a place in Nigeria that few had earlier than him or have now.
But none may have written the script of the dramatic collection of occurrences that thrust upon him the function of the Head of State and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, in one of the vital turbulent chapters of our nation’s historical past and it grew to become his lot to steer the ship of state in these extraordinarily stormy waters.
He was in his personal phrases compelled by a way of responsibility and accountability to just accept the function and to offer his greatest in shepherding his nation by means of an expertise unknown and unprecedented in our historical past.
He as soon as mentioned in an interview shortly after he was named Chairman of the Transitional Council and Head of Government, “If your country needs you, leave everything that you are doing to go and help.”
He noticed the federal government that he had been chosen to steer -as he himself described it “a child of circumstance” and his mission as that of ending a cycle of instability that was, as he mentioned “leading progressively to a catastrophe.”
Chief Shonekan lived his life all the time acutely aware of and motivated by a burden of responsibility, as a citizen of appreciable privilege, to offer again, both in his many philanthropic and civic pursuits or in public service.
It is a testomony to that sense of responsibility that even whereas out of workplace, Chief Shonekan remained deeply vested within the destiny of his nation.
