Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has urged political office holders to imbibe the lifestyle of the late sage of Estate Management, Sir Fortune Ebie in rendering service with integrity.
The governor, accompanied by his deputy, Kingsley Otuaro, chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Kingsley Esiso and other top officials of government made the callon Friday while speaking at a funeral service for late Sir Ebie at the Cathedral Church of St. John (Anglican Communion), Agbor.
According to Governor Okowa, “Sir Ebie served and led with an unassailable integrity, he set a standard of moral rectitude in the slippery world of business and service; he was an exemplary courage and selflessness in service, and we should take the battle from where he stopped, it is the best tribute we can give to him.
“I know we are mourning, but we have every reason to celebrate his life for what he did for Nigeria as a nation, he was a leadership icon; passion, integrity and service describes him.”
“He was easily the best brain Nigeria has produced in the Estate business,” Okowa added.
At the service which saw different organisations paying tribute to the late sage who was also called, Mr Housing, the Bishop of Ika Diocese of the Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. Peter Onekpe urged political office holders to be inspired by the lifestyle of the deceased.
Ebie is uncle of the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education in Delta State, Mr Chiedu Ebie.
“Sir Fortune Ebie’s legacies should inspire us not to live a life of personal aggrandisement to the detriment of the nation. We should think of posterity, we should dwell on things that we do not see, rather than those things that we see,” the Bishop said.
He continued, “if we are in government, we should look beyond those things that we see and look at what people will say of us when we have left office. Sir Ebie was the first Manager of FESTAC Town, Lagos. If it were today, he would have owned half of FESTAC, now that he is dead, where would he have taken those things to?”
“We need crop of leaders who will not collect money and dump in their houses. That is corruption; let us shun materialism; materialism is what has spoilt Nigeria,” Bishop Onekpe added.
