Posted by By MOSHOOD ADEBAYO, Abeokuta on
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have moved to his multi-billion Naira mansion as he held a Christmas Carol for family members and friends, an event that was almost marred by power outage.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have moved to his multi-billion Naira mansion as he held a Christmas Carol for family members and friends, an event that was almost marred by power outage.
It was a bitter pill for the ex-President to swallow as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) almost disrupted the ‘Seven-lesson Carol which was attended by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Alhaji Sarafa Tunji Isola, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Youths and Sports Development, Mr. Olasunkanmi Akinlabi.
The newly unveiled Presidential Mansion is located at the Hill top estate in Abeokuta , Ogun State capital. The embarrassing power outage forced the Pastor of the Owu Baptist Church, Pastor Abraham Adewole to give his message with torch light.
Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, a Senator, representing Ogun Central Senatorial District while commenting on the outage said: 'We thank the full moon even though we did not have PHCN electricity," while giving the vote of thanks.
By the time a standby generating set was put on, it could not power the musical equipment and the flood light, forcing many particularly those conducting the service to result to the use of torch light and GSM handset light.
About N400 billion was believed to have been expended by the Obasanjo administration on energy during its eight-year tenure, with many Nigerians and industries still lamenting incessant power outages.
The power outage came barely one hour into the service which had in attendance the paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Aremu Adedotun Gbadebo, the Osile of Oke-Ona, Oba Adedapo Tejuoso, the Olowu of Owu, Oba Olugboyega Dosunmuand the Olubara of Ibara Oba Jacob Omolade.
Pastor Abraham Adewole of Owu Baptist Church, Abeokuta, who was to preach the Christmas message could hardly read the needed verses from the Bible until a torch-light was provided for him.
Lamenting the situation, the Minister of God said: 'I myself I don't see clearly here," as he attempted to read a lesson from Luke 2 verse 7.
For about five minutes, Obasanjo, his daughter, Senator Iyabo, who is currently enmeshed in a N3.5 billion contract row and other dignitaries sat without electricity.
There was heavy presence of security personnel including members of the National Civil Defence Corps, State Security Service (SSS) and others. Oba Gbadebo, Tejuoso, Dosunmu and Olubara had read their lessons, in turn, before the power outage.
In her vote of thanks, Mrs. Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello said that she was happy for the day despite the power outage. Her words: "We thank the Lord for giving us his son, Jesus Christ who came to save us; we thank the Lord for giving us good moon even if we don't have the PHCN."
Iyabo shocked invited guests when she said that her other siblings who she announced their names as Funke, Bunmi, Funso and Toyosi could not join their father and other dignitaries in the front row because they 'felt they are not properly dressed."
Despite the power outage, the carol was well attended by family friends and associates as Governor Daniel who was said to have been held up in China was conspicuously absent, while Secretary to the State Government, Otunba Olumayowa Olukoya and other Commissioners stood in for him.