Southern Kaduna Progressive Youth Movement
President: 08036982903, Sec-Gen: 08025235287
PRESS RELEASE 07/03/2013
MOTIVATED BY SELFISHNESS AND GREED; N500 MILLION NAIRA ENDOWMENT FUND BY THE GWONG TRADITIONAL COUNCIL IN HONOUR OF LATE SIR PATRICK IBRAHIM YAKOWA
Gentlemen of the press
It is with great shock, dis-belief, shame and utter amazement that we address you today to condemn in its entirety the proposed N500 Million Naira endowment fund purportedly in honour of our late Governor, Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, organized by the Gwong Traditional Council; at a time the Family, Government, Associates and friends of the late Governor are still mourning his painful loss.
As laudable and appealing as the initiative looks or sound, it is wrongly timed, laced with selfish motives and intended to serve the personal purpose of the so-called organizers. We must therefore be courageous and bold enough to call these characters to order, caution and warn them not to drag to the mud the name of one of our most illustrious sons all for their selfish desires. Is this how the Gwong people behave?
What manner of people are these that instead of mourning and praying for the soul of the departed, they are thinking of a N500 million naira endowment. If they want to immortalize late Yakowa;
- Can’t they name the palace/market/L.G HQ after him, if they so love him?
- Must money be the driving force or motive before immortalizing a loved one?
- What is wrong if they come together and among themselves raise the N500 million they so badly need to immortalize him?
We salute the sheer courage and thoughtfulness of the Bajju, Moro’a and Kagoro Chiefdoms, who all cancelled their respective yearly festival celebrations to mourn the death of our late beloved Governor; and here we are faced with a situation where his own very clan/chiefdom have cut short their mourning, all in the name of raising N500 million for an” endowment fund”, may God deliver us
If the immediate or extended family of Sir Patrick Yakowa is behind this (directly or indirectly), a family that lost two family members in the spate of 2 months, then we are highly disappointed and ashamed of their actions and wonder what manner of people they are. If they are not aware or not supportive of this laughable sham, then we call on them to distant themselves from this shameful act of betrayal and greed and if possible stop the event
As a movement, we call on all friends and associates of the late Governor to shun this ill-timed, uncalled for and selfish motive of the Gwong Traditional Council and berate them for failing to sufficiently mourn the loss of their son but rather looking for avenues to raise funds under the covering of his name
It is being announced that Governor Ramalan Yero will grace the occasion; we wait to see if he is also part of the grand plot to rubbish the name of the late governor by gracing the occasion with his presence and possibly graciously donating to the “endowment fund”
The man whose name and legacies are about to be rubbished, was a man whose character and destiny were shaped by remarkable humility, faith and a hefty push from God; a man that fate and divine hands took firm control of his life, an astute technocrat/administrator per excellence and a complete gentleman who governed a massively polarized state and was still able to unite the people and run an all-inclusive administration.
Will posterity be fair to us, if we sit and watch him name and legacies rubbished for a plate of porridge?
This is the man the Gwong Traditional Council wants to rubbish all in the name of an endowment fund in his memory.
With due respect and with all sense of responsibility, we call on the Gwong traditional council to continue to mourn the passing away of their illustrious son, Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa and shelve any plan to immortalize him until such a time that the mourning period is over
Caleb Samuel Abbott
National President
