TEXT OF SPEECH PRESENTED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, SIR CELESTINE NGOZICHIM OMEHIA ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 54TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION By Celestine Omehia Protocols …. It is to the glory of the Almighty God that we are gathered here today and the Lord in His infinite goodness has granted us a clement weather. Let me thank the Almighty God for the shower of undeserved blessings and favours upon my life. Without Him, I can do nothing. On this occasion of my 54th birthday, I welcome this wonderful opportunity to speak to all my people; family, friends and colleagues. Those from whatever political estate they reside in, ethnic group they come from and language they speak, those from the academia, the Bar and the Bench, and those from whatever field they sojourn in, but most importantly to the generality of the people of the one united and indivisible Rivers State. Beside me is a very wonderful woman. I thank God for my dear wife, Dr. Mrs. Anthonia Eghieso Omehia. My jewel of inestimable value, my soul-mate, my one and only beloved sister and confidant; I thank you for your love, support and friendship. You have always stood by me in good times and in challenging times - in and out of public service. I recall vividly the numerous occasions you came to my aid when I needed moral, emotional and spiritual support. Thank you for your lovely meals that nourish me and keep me every year young. I also thank you for the wonderful children you bore me. I pray that the good Lord will continue to bless, guide and protect you always. Amen. I appreciate my parents for their continuous support, good parental upbringing and moral training. Success would have eluded me without their support and the good foundation they laid for me. I am grateful to my home town Ubima, for her role in the formative years of my life. I remain indebted to you and hope and pray that one day, I will be able to repay your good deeds by really placing you on the world map. I thank the President of this great country, His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR. I commend him for his transformation agenda. The airports are being remodelled, power supply is improving, the roads are being fixed, the rails are returning, new universities are springing up, the agriculture sector is being revamped, fuel queues have disappeared, and most importantly freedom of speech is being strengthened. Your Excellency, this agenda has impacted, and is still impacting positively on the lives of every Nigerian. I also thank your wife, the gorgeous first lady with beautiful dance steps, our Sister Dame Patience Jonathan for her motherly advice and efforts towards uniting Rivers people. Your Excellencies, I say a very big thank you. As Kalu Uche Kalu puts it: “the things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy”. Your Excellency, I urge you to continue to do for others and God will continue to guide you, grant you wisdom in piloting the affairs of this nation. I say thank you to all of you for the numerous kind and generous messages of goodwill sent to me. This is the day the Lord has made and it is indeed marvellous in our eyes. This marvellous day is not only a happy one for me, but is also a day of serious reflections on the years gone by, and thoughts of the years to come; the years of serious challenges and equally wonderful opportunities. It is a thing of joy and honour to know at this time that there are still multitudes of friends and well-wishers who are thinking of me. Your show of love deeply moves me and I am immensely grateful. To my wonderful guests who have relegated their personal schedules and travelled from far and near and even from within to celebrate with me, men shall celebrate you and I ask God to bless you real good. Standing on this elevated platform, I am humbled by the great number of Rivers Youths who are here today. I see a handsome representation of the Elder Statesmen of this State and Country, and I see a whole lot of our beautiful and colourful women. This is the reason I am smiling now. It is a great honour to have the Youths here. As you have identified with me, I will continue to identify with you. Where you are is where I will be, where you go is where I will go and what you say is what I will say, for I am only a pencil in the hands of the wills and aspirations of my dear people of Rivers State. The Youths are our future leaders, our tomorrow. The use of their time in productive activities is essential in the growth and development of the State. You are not tools for violence, you are not finished products. Let me borrow a few words from the Earl of Chesterfield, “know the true value of time; snatch, seize and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today”. You must take part in decision making; you are stakeholders in the polity. As Albert Einstein puts it, “learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning”. Do not be indifferent to governance and leadership. You must aspire; you must be ready to compete with your peers within and outside Nigeria. The key to development is on educational empowerment. You must bridge the gap of the years gone by. Thrive to achieve greatness. We are always here to provide whatever support you need, to mentor you, to act as role models and to continue to show good examples by our actions. To all of us, education and re-orientation is urgently needed in the political vineyard of our dear State. An educated, enlightened and informed population is one of the surest ways of promoting the health of a democracy. The politics we play needs to acknowledge a common identifiable and workable ideological motivation. It is only this that will create for us a viable political arrangement. When we have a re-oriented, informed and educated population, the people will take ownership of the society and demand responsibility from leaders. The society is an estate with one landlord and his tenants. The landlord is the people, while the leaders are the tenants. The landlord must not allow the tenants seize his estate and lord over him. I make bold to pride myself to have the most ardent supporters in the history of this State. I thank you all for without you, there is no me. Tom Bodett said, and I quote: “the difference between school and life is; in school, you are taught a lesson and given a test but in life, you are given a test which teaches you a lesson”. I have had my fair share of success and challenges like every other human being, but it had not deterred me. In fact, I have learnt new lessons in steadfastness, trust, friendship, loyalty, brotherliness, betrayal and forgiveness, especially in the field of politics. To all, and for everything, I give God the glory. At this point, I want to once again thank my supporters. You have been most wonderful; swimming with me in both the streams of fresh and clean water, and in the swamps of backstabbing and brutal politicking. God bless you all. Today, I think that there is the need to channel all our efforts into one united and focused purpose; under one big and accommodating umbrella This umbrella, I repeat is big enough to shelter us all, our friends and our invitees, even our prospective friends. Brothers and sisters, I announce to you the dissolution of all our political formations, which include Consolidation for Legacy, Rivers Democratic Vanguard, Rivers Democratic Movement, K12- New Consciousness, Elders Forum, Omehia Support Group e.t.c. And hereby announce the birth of a new umbrella body, the RIVERS REDEMPTION VANGUARD (RRV) - ‘The Redemption Team’. The leadership of this great body shall be as follows….. Mr. Dominic Saatah - Chairman Barr. Kingdom Nwankwoala - Deputy Chairman Engr. Gibson Benibo - Secretary Mr. Ken Amaewhule - P.R.O. Mrs. Roseline Wokekoro - Woman Leader I charge you to go into the world and preach the Gospel of peace, preach tolerance, preach lawfulness, preach responsibility, and preach respect to people and institutions. Rivers State is in our hands and we have no excuse to let it rot. Let me use this opportunity to reach out to my brothers and sisters wherever they are, and wherever they may seem to be, for we are one people, let no one tell you otherwise. Though tongues and tribe may differ, in brotherhood we stand. Let us all come together in peace and in one accord to forge a common course for our State, with sincerity of purpose and with a common understanding. My people, the food is getting cold and the drinks hot, let us not forget that today is all about my birthday. Drink, eat, dance, make merry. Let the music play on. I thank you my friends for putting the events of yesterday and today together to celebrate me, and I thank everyone for coming to celebrate with me.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 06:00:33 +0000