The Anambra Government has expressed regrets, over deaths of Mrs Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi and Mrs Adanma Okpara, wives of late Maj.-Gen. Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi and Dr Michael Okpara.
Aguiyi-Ironsi was a former military head of the Nigerian state, while Okpara was a former Premier of then Eastern Region.
Both matriarchs died at the weekend, at the ripe age of 98 and 96 years respectively.
The state in a statement by Mr C-Don Adinuba, Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, said the deceased were pillars of support for their husbands, who excelled in their respective roles in the nation’s history.
According to him, the people and government of Anambra, have received with sadness, the departure of two former first ladies, Mrs Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi and Mrs Adanma Okpara, who died a day apart last weekend.
“These two first ladies epitomised the old-age aphorism that behind every successful man, there is a woman.
“They encouraged their husbands to serve the nation with their whole being, and Nigeria, as a result, became the better for it.
Maj.-Gen Aguiyi-Ironsi was a great believer in national unity and progress, he appointed people from various parts of the country, regardless of their ethnicity or religion, on his personal staff and others into key positions.
“This is an important lesson to the current Nigerian political class.
“Dr Michael Okpara was no less altruistic. A medical doctor who served at different times as the Minister of Health and Minister of Agriculture in the Eastern Region in the 1950s, before becoming the Premier for six years,
“Okpara had no house anywhere in the world until in the early 1980s, when his friends and associates, publicly contributed money to build a house for him in his homeland in Umuahia, Abia ,” he stated.
Adinuba said Okpara’s leadership quality was why the Eastern Nigeria was one of the world’s fastest growing economies by the end of Nigeria’s First Republic in 1966, as the government invested hugely in education, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, mining, trade and commerce.
He said history would be kind to the memories of the two former first ladies, for always encouraging their husbands to tread the path of honour, integrity and the common good.
“The glorious passage of the wives of Aguiyi-Ironsi and Okpara, reminds all Nigerians that public service is a calling rather than an avenue for squandering of public resources and self-aggrandizement,” he concluded.