Former Delta State Governor, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, has joined the throng of Nigerians who mourned the passing of former President Shehu Shagari. He said that Shagari was a gentlemanly President who showed that power, no matter how mighty, could be used moderately. He showed us that a President was first of all a citizen just like every other Nigerian and was only a President to serve the cause of the citizenry.

He said that Nigerians should do well to learn the right lessons that abound in the life of Shagari. “Even after leaving office on the first day of 1994, he maintained a dignity that was uncommon in our shores. He gave his advice to the nation or the leaders when it was necessary, always desirous of pointing out the right way in every matter, never forgetting for once that as a man who was voted into the exalted office of the President, the nation had become his constituency,” Ibori said Saturday in a statement signed by his media aide, Tony Eluemunor.

He charged present and future Nigerian leaders to always emulate Shagari, who as President from 1979 to 1983 identified young Nigerians such as Audu Ogbeh, the present Minister of Agriculture, as future leaders and took them under his wings. Ogbeh was in the Benue State legislature but Shagari appointed him a Minister of Communications and later Steel Development; a deliberate act meant to nurture Ogbeh’s leadership talents, Ibori said.