The former majority leader of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Mr. Nnamdi Okafor, passed away in South Africa in August while on an official vacation, and Anambra Governor Chukwuma Soludo has expressed his sorrow.
Speaking at the memorial service for Okafor on Friday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Awka, Soludo called his passing a loss for Anambra.
The governor stated that the legislator’s contributions when he was alive will comfort the populace and added that he is also being honored because he had a significant impact.
According to him, “we are here to give honour and our last respect to our brother, friend, colleague and father, Hon. Nnamdi Okafor, who until his death was the majority leader in the State House of Assembly. He also represented Awka Constituency 1.
“I thank His Lordship for this homily. He reminded us that death is inevitable.
“The game of life has it that once you are born, you are old enough to die, it is not how long one lived, but how well and impactful.
“He served Anambra well, the laws he passed and all contributions he made remain a source of encouragement, may his soul rest in peace,” he said.
Soludo said his first encounter with Okafor was during his days at the Authentic Progressive Forum and that both of them had moved on well, noting that it had pleased God to take him from this side of life.
Noting that the average life expectancy of Nigerians was about 54 years for males and about 56 years for females, the governor said it has become necessary for people to take health insurance which the state was also running seriously.
“I want to use this opportunity to reiterate the call that people should take care of their health.
“Our emphasis as government in this liveable Anambra is for people to clean the environment, the air we breathe, the food we eat, much of the health issues we face is caused by what we do by ourselves.
“We must take responsibility for our health; that way we will be able to prolong our life expectancy, each of those drugs we take have side effects,” he said.
Soludo said the best way to immortalise the late lawmaker was to live out the essence of what he lived and died for.
“Carry on with the same principles that Nnamdi lived for, transmit them to his children, that way, his legacies will live on,” he said.
In his homily, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor, the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, said all should bear in mind that human beings had limited time on earth.
Ezeokafor said everyone should be careful about the kind of life they led, warning that vanity upon vanity was vanity.
According to him, know that everything does not end here on earth. We have the present life and life after death.
- Others who joined the burial mass were Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, the Deputy Governor, Rt Hon. Uche Okafor, Speaker of Anambra House of Assembly, Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu, the Secretary to the State Government and Mr Ernest Ezeajughi, the Chief of Staff to Soludo, among others.