Politics

Ajadi Celebrates Birthday With Correctional Centre Inmates, Officially Releases CV

Published

2 years ago

July 21, 2023

This year’s birthday celebration of the gubernatorial candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo was with a difference.

It was done with inmates of the Ibara correctional centre, Abeokuta, and also marked Ajadi’s official release of his curriculum vitae (CV)

The dual event was witnessed by an impressive crowd of family and friends and also political members and associates.

Ajadi who told the persons in custody not to lose hope in life, rather advised them to respect the officials, the other individuals being held and to remember to be prayerful to God.

He also officially released his biodata as a way of making information about him accessible by well-meaning members of the press, biographers and other information taste persons.

Below we published full text of the speech which he delivered at the event.

Don’t let your past discourage you, believe in a better tomorrow

An address presented to the inmates of the Abeokuta prison, by Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo, on the occasion of his birthday celebration, July 20, 2023

Our diligent and caring prison staff

My dear inmates

Ladies gentlemen.

Good morning.

I consider it a great privilege to stand before you today to make these few comments, as part of the activities marking my birthday.

It is not an occasion for great and long speeches, but a moment for sober reflection.

The birthday boy, Ambassador Ajadi, assisted by his wife, Mrs Oyindamola Ajadi and others, cutting the birthday cake

But first, I must thank God who has kept you and I alive to witness today.

The truth is that despite our personal challenges, there are many who would have been happy to be alive today, but they are not.

But God, in His mercy has kept you we should thank Him.

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I know that some people may say, why should I thank God?

Let me give you one reason: There is a wise saying, that a living dog is better than a dead lion. A living dog is better than a dead lion. And if you are alive today, you can be great tomorrow.

Let me also remind you that one of the most respected Nigerian statesman, who is also from Ogun State, and former Army General, and later president of the country, our father, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had been in prison

Nelson Mandela, who later became South African President, and one of the greatest African statesmen also served prison terms.

But you know what? These men behaved themselves in prison.

They had hopes

They endured the pain

They remained faithful and God helped them to come out alive and to become great people.

You too can do the same.

So, I say to you today, don’t lose hope.

Myself standing before you today has passed through challenges of life, has been detained before, but I did not lose hope. Don’t lose hope because God is capable of bringing you out.

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Being here is not a death sentence, no, it is a correctional period to make us better.

Be hopeful
Respect the prison officials
Respect and show love to fellow inmates
Above all be prayerful, asking God to help you.

I told myself that my birthday this year would not be complete if I do not come to celebrate with you and to share these few words of encouragement. It is a token of the love that I have for you, and indeed for all human beings, because it is God that created all of us.

If me a human being can remember you, then God remembers you, even in prison.

What we are praying for in our country, is for good leadership. Yes, you have made a mistake, but the conditions here can be better;

It should help to reform you, to be able to come back to the large society better, but if the conditions in the prisons are not conducive, then it has become punishment rather than reformation.

So, I use this opportunity to call on the governments, to please, make the conditions of our prisons better.

Not a place where inmates would be battling bed bugs and other terrible conditions. Let prison conditions be better.