By Salisu Sani-Idris
Vice President Kashim Shettima has showered praises on the late Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, mother of President Bola Tinubu.
Shettima spoke on Sunday in Abuja during the Annual Grand Prayer Session in honour of the Mogaji, held at the Abuja National Mosque.
The vice president described her as a woman whose love went far beyond her family and shaped Nigeria’s moral imagination.
He said the leadership given by the late Iyaloja-General of Nigeria, who died on June 15, 2013, was demonstrated in the lives she lifted and the institutions she strengthened.
Shettima noted that the late matriarch of the Tinubu family ran her race, finished her course, and left behind a legacy that would instruct generations yet unborn.
The vice president identified the ‘like mother, like son’ case scenario between the President and his late mother.
According to Shettima, Mogaji shaped Tinubu into a leader and served Nigeria through the values she instilled in her son.
“It should surprise no one, then, that the son she raised carries the same fire into the highest office in our land.
” President Bola Tinubu, learned at her side that public life is a trust and that leadership is owed first to the ordinary and the unheard.
” The instinct to fight for democracy when it was dangerous to do so, the willingness to stand for the common good when comfort counselled silence.
“The conviction that the citizen deserves a government that works for them, all of this was first kindled in a home where service was the daily example.
” A mother shaped a leader, and through that leader her values now serve the whole of Nigeria.”
Shettima said Mogaji belongs to the rare class of Nigerians who knew that “commerce is a service to humanity and that the marketplace is a meeting point of human need and human dignity.”
He said that Mogaji spent the greater part of her life giving herself “to the welfare of traders, to the protection of ordinary women who built their livelihoods stall by stall.
“She taught a generation of market women that their work mattered, that their voices carried weight, and that their toil deserved respect.
“Alhaja Mogaji earned her people’s affection because she served before she sought to be served, she feed where there was hunger, mediated where there was discord and stood between the weak and those who will exploit them.”
Shettima prayed for the President’s late mother, committing her to the mercy of God.
He also expressed confidence that Nigeria would surmount its current security and economic challenges through fervent prayers, unity, and the collective commitment of its citizens.
He assured Nigerians that Tinubu remains fully committed to addressing the nation’s pressing challenges.
He noted that the administration was implementing policies and programmes aimed at strengthening security, stimulating economic growth, and improving the welfare of Nigerians.
Earlier, Alhaji Ibrahim Masari, the Convener of the prayer session and Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs and Other Matters, described Mogaji as a woman whose life was dedicated to the service of others.
Masari disclosed that more than 250 hand-pump boreholes have been constructed across nine states in Northern Nigeria in memory of the late matriarch.
He further announced plans to establish the Abibatu Mogaji Islamic Centre in Abuja to promote Islamic scholarship, leadership development, science, and technology education.
Masari also revealed that a modern Juma’at Mosque, complete with residential quarters for the Imam and supporting staff, would be constructed in Rigasa, Kaduna State, in honour of the late Mogaji.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that prominent Islamic scholars from across the country offered special prayers for the repose of the soul of the late Mogaji.
The clerics also prayed for peace, security, unity, and economic prosperity in Nigeria.(NAN)