Obasanjo, Mimiko Bid Folashade Akinkugbe Goodbye

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The remains of late wife of Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Prof Oladipo Akinkugbe, late Prof Mrs Folashade Akinkugbe were committed to mother earth on Fridsy 10 June 2023 in her hometown, Ondo, Ondo State.

Dignitaries across the country, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, and several other dignitaries were in attendance to give her befitting celebration of life.

The funeral service in honour of the deceased was held at St. Stephen’s Cathedral Anglican Church, Ondo, where the retired Anglican Bishop of Ondo Province, Bishop Latunji Lasebikan, described the death as inevitable, hence the need to live a life worthy of emulation.

He called on everybody to live their lives as ordained by their creator while alive, urging people to walk in the way of the Lord, saying every individual would give an account of how they live their lives, saying people should live and prepare to meet their creator at any time.

“Anybody can go at any time, but when you go, how would you want to be remembered? What would be your account before God? What are the things you do that will make people remember you?

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‘”God has a purpose of sending us here and has the final say about our living, whatever happens, is nothing hidden to Him and must take it and see it as from Him who created us”

Lasebikan said, “Money cannot stop death when it comes, we all have a short time to leave on this earth. Professor Akinkugbe has gone to rest now. Death is the way of all flesh, death is an appointment, we can’t escape it and we did not know when, where, and how it would happen.

“We are reminded in the Bible that life is about all of us traveling in the same train to different destinations, and when the train gets to the bus stop, we shall all depart. The simple truth is that Professor Folashade Akinkugbe had gone to her bus stop and destination, and she has slept off.

“One thing I need to tell us here is that there is hope beyond the grave for those who know the Lord, and that was why Apostle Paul said that we must not sorrow as if we don’t have hope.

“The great lesson to learn from death is that this life is a passage for us, and in that passage, there is the first stage which is our instances and others. The point is that we all have an expiring date. There is an expiring date for everybody, and when that expiring date comes, when will you spend your life?

“The text of my message today is Hebrew 13:14, which says; “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” When you see those loot this country, Nigeria, and the truth is that we are suffering in this nation because of those looting of our commonwealth, and the Bible calls them fools, they can never be satisfied, and they shall account for it.

“Our faith in Christ should go beyond this life, and after this life, we will all give account of this life. The message we are listening to now is for those of us that are still in life, and if there is a need for us to make an adjustment, we should do so.

“Every man is given the opportunity to die once and after that, judgement. We have hope in Christ that we shall all meet again with the Lord. Today, the Lord is telling us to rethink our lives, if you have Jesus, rejoice because your silence shall end up in victory, joy, and celebration. Because when we are with the Lord, there will be no darkness.

“Where do you want to spend your eternity? And that is why you must give your life to Christ Jesus. May the family of Akinkugbe shall be comforted.”

Obasanjo, however, described the late Professor Folashade Akinkugbe as an icon and a hero who lived an exemplary life of leadership, ardent patriotism, and devotion to the course upholding the highest standard in the medical profession and society at large.

According to the former President, the love of the couple for Nigeria was unequal, and said, “I was a beneficiary of their love, of their hospitality, and the beneficiary of the closed relationship that we had when both were alive.

“Between them and I, we had agonising hours about our country because both of them were what I will call committed Nigerians for the good of Nigeria.

“On many occasions, we agonised, talked together, prayed together, and my prayer for both of them is that the rest will see the Nigeria they had wished to see of us before it is too long, and I believe that all of us, particularly for people like me who knew how they felt about this our great country or potentially great country as they wished it could have been different in their own time.

“All I can do or urge others to do is to continue to work to make Nigeria what God had created it to be. Nigeria is a land flowing with milk and honey, not a land of poverty, not a land of insecurity but a land where love will reign, a land where prosperity will be the order of the day. A land where peace and security will reign supreme”

Among the dignitaries that graced the occasion are Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Otunba Oyewole Fasawe, captains of industries, and medical icons, among others.

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