Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has described Edo State Governor,
\nComrade Adams Oshiomhole as \u201ca worthy ambassador\u201d of the nation\u2019s
\n\u201cProgressives\u201d community.
\nProfessor Soyinka gave the commendation at an exclusive reception he held
\nfor Comrade Oshiomhole and his wife, Iara, at his Abeokuta home, assisted
\nby his wife, Folake Soyinka, last weekend.
\nIn a reference to Comrade Oshiomhole\u2019s activism even as Governor, the
\nliterary giant said: \u201cAdams, I must use this occasion to thank you for
\nyour courage, for not forgetting your roots and for not letting us down.<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI\u2019ve always believed that people should try and remain
\nthemselves and not allow themselves to be blinded by power. Which is why
\namong the favourite photographs I keep today is the one where you were
\nshown really digging it down at a public concert with your two fingers
\npointing to the ground like arrow, without any inhibition. I think the
\npicture was taken sometime in 2012.
\n\u201cWhen I saw it splashed on the front page of the newspaper while driving
\non a Lagos street, I grabbed a copy from the vendor and I told my wife
\n\u2018Yeah, this is the Oshiomhole that we\u2019ve always known\u2019.\u201d
\nOn her part, Mrs. Folake Soyinka, an old student of the St Maria Gorreti
\nSecondary School in Benin City, praised the Edo State Governor for his
\ntransformation of public schools in the State since coming on board in
\n2008.
\nShe said: \u201cI\u2019m sure the governor does not know this; I attended St Maria
\nGoretti in the 70s and graduated in 1979. In our days, it was a beautiful
\nschool. But many years later, the school was completely run down.
\nBut when I checked recently, I was quite impressed with what I saw. The
\nschool has been completely transformed.
\n\u201cIt is the same story at Idia College and hundreds of other public schools
\nacross the state. We can\u2019t thank the Comrade Governor enough for his good
\nworks.\u201d
\nResponding, Comrade Oshiomhole thanked Professor Soyinka and his wife,
\nFolake, for honouring him and his wife by inviting them to their home for
\ndinner, adding that whatever modest achievements recorded under his
\nstewardship in Edo would not have been possible without the critical
\nsolidarity of the anonymous counselors like the Nobel laureate.
\nSaid Oshiomhole: \u201cProf, I am eternally indebted for the support and
\ninspiration you have provided me over the years, dating back to when I was
\nin the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Some would limit themselves to just
\nbeing critics or commentators on the pages of the newspapers. But you are
\ndifferent, sir. You are not just a man of words but also a man of action.
\n\u201cThe other day, I saw a couple of photographs taken during our public
\nprotests against the policies and programmes of former President Olusegun
\nObasanjo, more than ten years ago. One of the photographs that stood out
\nis the one in which you were in the front-line, hand-in-hand with me,
\nwearing the NLC apron. For me, it is a mark of your statesmanship and a
\ntestament to your commitment to fight and speak for the masses of Nigeria.
\nLike it has been said time and again, you are indeed a living legend and
\nthe conscience of not just the nation but the continent of Africa at
\nlarge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has described Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as \u201ca worthy ambassador\u201d of the nation\u2019s \u201cProgressives\u201d community. Professor Soyinka gave the commendation at an exclusive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n