Nigeria has lost a great man with the death of the former Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, according to the wife of the President, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu.
Akeredolu died on Wednesday, December 27, 2023, in a German hospital where he was being treated for prostate cancer.
Mrs Tinubu, who spoke during a condolence visit to the Ibadan residence of the departed, said Akeredolu did his best, describing him as a great man loved by her family, her husband, and many Nigerians.
She said: “We can only wish that the legacies he left behind will continue and endure. I wish his wife, his children, grandchildren, and the family that God will comfort them and also ease their pain.
“They should live with the fact that the man has done well, he has done well to people, he will be solidly missed, and may his soul rest in perfect peace. I keep asking when somebody asks people if somebody is alright or is sick. I said, ‘Who is well?’ We all have one ailment or the other, and it is only God who gives us each day to live by.”
Also, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, expressed sadness over the death of the former governor.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Alex Ogbonnia, on Saturday, the association described Akeredolu as “a courageous man who spoke truth to power, a soldier of democracy and the popular sentiment of South-West politics”.
It said: “The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has received with grief the sad news of the passing of an angel of history, a robust visionary, purveyor of morals, the jinx breaker, the former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, a legal luminary and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, an inter-ethnic genius, the two-time governor of Ondo State and the former chairman of the South-West Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, CON.
“Throughout his career, Akeredolu displayed amazing social skill, dispositional humility, character comeliness, legal wizardry, irresistible charisma, intellectual prowess, and a disarming political acumen.”
