Friday 23 March 2018

Late Stella Obasanjo’s Father, Dr. Christopher Abebe is dead

Dr. Christopher Abebe, the ex-boss of the United African Company (UAC) and father of Stella Obasanjo, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s wife, is dead.
In a statement that was released by his son, Dr. John Abebe, who is also the President of St. Gregory’s College Old Boys’ Association, it was confirmed that Dr. Christopher Abebe gave up the ghost on Thursday afternoon at the age of 99, in Iruekpen, Edo State, after a brief illness.
The statement read;
“In his lifetime, he joined the United African Company Nigeria Limited as a young clerk and rose through the ranks to become the first Nigerian Chairman/Managing Director of the company. He was also the first Nigerian Personnel Director of UAC in 1959.
“He was at various times the pro-chancellor and chairman of the council of three Nigerian universities: the University of Benin, the University of Nsukka and the University of Calabar.
“On his retirement from the UAC, he became the first Nigerian Chairman of the Nigerian Breweries. A devout Catholic, he was a Papal Knight of the St. Gregory’s and Supreme Knight of St. Mulumba.”

The statement also added that the late Christopher Abebe was survived by his wife of nearly 75 years, Mrs. Theresa Abebe, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
The late Dr. Christopher Abebe’s daughter, Stella Obasanjo became well-known not only because she was the first lady of Nigeria, married to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, but also for being a political activist in her own right, supporting such causes as women’s liberation, youth as leaders of tomorrow, and the rehabilitation of a war-torn Nigeria. She was a trailblazer in her role as the first lady and showed Nigerian women the way to becoming more involved in the rebuilding of the country. Obasanjo will be remembered as the kind of the first lady that countries desire to have as a figurehead of their nation.
Born November 14, 1945, Stella Abebe met her husband, Olusegun Obasanjo, when he was a military officer. According to the P.M. News, she found him to be rather dull at first but was finally won over by the man’s intelligence and perseverance, two traits she said helped make her husband a great leader. He was imprisoned in 1995 for taking part in a coup to overthrow the government, and while trying to have her husband freed, Obasanjo began to exhibit the activism that many applauded her for.

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