The wife of Olu of Warri, Olori Atuwatse III, yesterday urged pupils to emulate the life of her late father, Captain Hosa Okunbo who she said was not born with a silver spoon but made it through hard work and determination.
She stated this in Benin City when the late Okunbo family gifted 100 pupils and students selected from public schools scholarship for the session to mark their father’s 64th posthumous birthday.
Flanked by his siblings, other family members and heads of schools, she said “Captain Hosa was many things to many people. My father went to school in this city, my mother went to St Maria Gorretti so I want encourage you, he was one of the children in the family of eleven, his parents were teachers so he was not born with a silver spoon but through hard work dedication and determination he rose to be a man of great impact and great value.
“So I want you take that as an encouragement. Look at him and know that this is the same Benin City that he grew up in and you are growing up in, you have all it takes to make it and impact on the society.
“Education is so important to us and we decided to put this together to mark his posthumous 64th birthday. We know we can do feeding but the food will get finished, we can build a roads but the road will get bad some day and it came to me, why don’t we invest in lives, why don’t we transform lives, why don’t we ensure that pupils can go to school so that the multiplier effects will be felt.
“We have touched one hundred lives today but I dare say we have touched a hundred thousand lives.”
Earlier, the Olori’s younger brother and first son of Okunbo, Osahon Okunbo said Nigeria invested in his late father through earned scholarships and “he always referenced that to let people know that and wanted to always give back to Nigeria because of what Nigeria did for him and this is one way we can continue that and to honour him, you should begin to ensure that you are the best.
“Always give more than you take, try to be selfless and for every decision you take, always ask yourself how that decision will benefit your community. If all of us can do that, we will have a better state, we will have a better community and you will have embodied the values my father stood for.”
Principal of Imanguero, College, one of the beneficiary schools, Mrs Temofeh Matilda who spoke of on behalf of the recipient school thanked the gestures of Capt Hosa Children for supporting education in the state.