By Uche Amunike
Kwara State indigenes and indeed Nigerians have been thrown into mourning, over the weekend, with the news of the passing of Dr Mike Omotosho, who was the former National Chairman of Labour Party from 2015 to 2016. He was also an aspirant in the 2015 general election in Kwara State, where he took the third position, behind former Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Senator Simeon Ajibola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after their fiercely contested governorship election.
The Kwara state born Omotosho’s death occurred in the United States of America and the nature of his sickness was unknown as at the time of filing this report.
Dr Mike Omotosho was the founder of the popular Sustainable Health Initiative (SHI). He also set up the Mike Omotosho Foundation which he used as a means of alleviating poverty in his home state and empowering the youths by organizing different training and community development programs for them over time. This foundation has already offered training for over 200 members of his rural community on different vocational skills and has also, offered them a Ten Million Naira (N10m) Micro-Credit scheme to empower 300 women with which to start their small scale businesses.
The Late Dr Mike Omotosho who was a great philanthropist, also held the position of Governor of Rotary International in certain parts of Nigeria that covered the entire North West, North East, North Central and South West, excluding Lagos and Ogun States between 2015 and 2016.
Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq described the death of Dr Mike Omotosho, former Guber candidate in his state, as shocking and painful.
He showed his pain in a statement released, Saturday night, by his Chief Press Secretary, Rafiu Ajakaiye, where he described the death of the late party chieftain as a great depletion of the rank of spirited people of Kwara State, who are known to always give support to the downtrodden and the youths.
The statement partly read: ‘My heartfelt condolences go to his aged mother, his immediate family and dependents and everyone who loves him. I beseech almighty God to repose his soul and comfort the family’, it added.
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has also expressed the death of Dr Mike Omotosho as a rude shock. This was according to a statement released by the agency, titled ‘RIP Dr Mike Omotosho’, where they described the late philanthropist as one of the important partners of the NOA in creating awareness and also eradicating hepatitis in the country.
The statement described the late Omotosho as a philanthropist who channeled his energy towards achieving zero hepatitis in Nigeria through his NGO, the Mike Omotosho Foundation.
Their statement partly read: ‘Many times, we worked together to actualize the dream of achieving zero hepatitis by providing free and discounted hepatitis tests to less privileged Nigerians for which your foundation championed’.
