The Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, was absent from the 60th birthday celebration of his erstwhile mentor and predecessor, Dr Peter Odili, on Friday in Abuja.
Many dignitaries at the ceremony held at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers wondered why the governor was not part of the events. Amaechi, who was the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly when Odili was the governor, shunned both the church service and the birthday lecture, which was delivered by a former Minister of Health, Prof. Alphonsus Nwosu.
There were indications that Amaechi�s absence could be connected with the frosty relationship between the two. However, some of Odili�s erstwhile colleagues such as the former governors of Cross River (Donald Duke), Nasarawa (Abdullahi Adamu) as well as the incumbent governors of Ogun (Gbenga Daniel), Osun (Olagunsoye Oyinlola), Ondo (Olusegun Agagu), Niger (Babangida Aliyu) and Oyo (Adebayo Alao-Akala) and other dignitaries were present.
In his lecture, Nwosu said that there was need to allow the youths to take over the leadership of Africa. He called on African leaders to develop an �abiding faith in the youths as the driving force of development and invest heavily in the youths to acquire the knowledge, skills and requisite competences for national development and inculcate in them core national values.�
The former minister said that it was the youths with their energies, talents, skills and courage that could jump-start national economies and ignite the rapid development of Africa in the 21st Century. According to him, �The lessons of good education and youthfulness in the development of the world must not be lost on the new generation of African leaders. The new leaders should draw inspiration from the likes of President JF Kennedy, who was Harvard-educated, entered the US Senate at 25 years and declared when he became the youngest US President at age 43 that �the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans and that America shall get to the moon.� They did.��
Odili, in his brief remarks, attributed his sound health to his wife, Justice Mary Odili.
However, the Acting Director, Press Affairs to the Rivers State governor, Mr. Blessing Wikina, said Amaechi was not in the country. He said the governor had a good relationship with Odili and all former governors of the state, and wished his predecessor a happy birthday.
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