Shagari: Dependable bridge builder – IBB
The former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) has described the first civilian President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari as a true “Democratic and bridge builder” Nigeria will always miss.
General Babangida message which he personally signed on the death of Alhaji Shehu Shagari on Friday night said the deceased was also a ‘detribalised Nigerian’.
He extolled the virtues of the first civilian President in the second republic saying, “Shehu Shagari was a great patriotic leader and an accomplished gentleman, at first a teacher, an administrator, a technocrat and an honest decent unassuming simple Nigerian Leader.”
IBB said, “To keep his (Shagari)’s memory alive Nigerian politicians and indeed all fellow Nigerians must put to practice all his ideals of peace and party politics without rancour, irrespective of any form of provocation.”
He therefore urged all persons vying for political office “to emulate him and keep alive the political principles of the late Turakin Sokoto, Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, the quintessential public servant who was “Beckoned to Serve”.
Babangida who prayed for the repose of the soul of the deceased therefore said, “The entire nation, his family, entire people of Sokoto state and indeed the Sokoto Caliphate will accept his passing with equanimity.”
Late former President, Shehu Shagari died Friday night in an Abuja hospital.
