By danivert,His Excellency Gov

Copyright thesun

From Jude Owuamanam Jos

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said that no nation progresses without love and unity.

Speaking at the funeral mass of late Lydia Yilwatda, mother of the national chairman of All Progressive Congress (APC) Prof Nentawe Yilwatda held at Church of Christ In Nations (COCIN) headquarters Church Jos, Plateau state on Saturday, Tinubu said that nobody determines what God has ordained.

He said he inherited Islam by birth and didn’t find any need to change, married a Christian and didn’t find any need to convert her, stressing that there was no conflict in his family as a result of the religious differences.

He said, “God’s ordained action and his promises is what matters. I inherited Islam from my family. I didn’t change. But my wife is a pastor. She prays for me. No conflict. And I never teach it at any single time to convince her or convert her.

“I believe in the freedom of religion. We are praying to the same God. We are answerable to the same almighty God. We will answer to him. We will account for him. Our deeds and character. Our love to our fellow beings matters not the method and the faith of our people.

He thanked the church in Nigeria for upholding the unify of the country.

The president said that the turnout at event reflected the character and personality of your APC national chairman, adding, “We are gathered to honor Mama, our dear mother Mama Lydia Yilwatda, mother of our party chairman Prof Nentawe Yilwatda. Your mother lived a good life, and the achievements of life is to live a good name behind. She left a good seed behind. That was why we decided to chose you to lead us as our national chairman.
“You are a great thinker, a performer, a progressive performer. Thank you for being who you are. You can see the turn out today, all the governors, all the national leaders available are here to honor you and your mother.

“Your mother must have prayed to make you who you are today. I thank your mother for her prayers. You are a good seed and you must succeed. Your mother lived a dedicated life, she lived for humanity, and she dedicated her life to God.

“The turnout in your mother’s funeral is a way to promote unity, contentment, satisfaction, love, peace, and productive leadership to our nation. You have a big challenge at hand, but thank God you are matured enough for it.

“To the clergies, I thank you for your solemn remarks, thank you for promoting peace, stability and friendliness on the Plateau. Hatred is not an option to us.

Earlier in a funeral mass sermon by Rev.Dr.Mudimka Yohanna chairman Provincial church council (PCC). COCIN Jos said everything in life is seasonally.

“There is time and season for everything, time to plant, time to harvest. It means there is time to be born and time to die. The time between life and death mean different thing to different people. To a business man time is money, to a politicians time is to campaign and win election, to a contemporary man of God it is a time to win souls. But the bible tells us that the time between life and death is meant to glorify God, it’s the time to do the will of God.

“God has given all of time to spend, time then is a resource that God gave everyone of us, and we shall account for it after all. The management of time given to us by God is metaphorically referred to as planting and harvesting, what you plant is what you harvest.

” Life generally is like farming and harvesting, but what kind of seed are you planting? bad seed or good seed. If you are a fake pastor deceiving people about in your sermon, you are planting a bad seed. If you are a politician going about executing selfish agenda and not people’s agenda of people that gave the mandate, you are soeing a bad seed. If you are a civil servant, not playing the game according to the rule, remember a day of reckoning is coming.

“Mama Lydia and her husband were cautious of this word of God, that was why they dedicated their lives to serving God Both of them served God and retired with no house of their own. These couple maximize their time well, they sowed the good seed by serving humanity and not themselves. And the Bible said whoever that served people instead of themselves will inherit eternal life.

“The caliber of personalities attending Mama’ funeral mass today shows that the scriptures is fulfilled in the kind of life she lived. It shows Nana Lydia died as a hero.

Quoting from the Bible, Rev Yohanna said, “Revelation 14:13 said, “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

“Mama Lydia is now resting from the good labour of her hand”.

Nentawe Yilwatda said his mother was diagnosed 47 years ago, stressing that God had a purpose for preserving her life until the time she died.

“God has preserved the life of my mother after she was diagnosed for death 47 years ago. So, today, I’m full of gratitude to God for sparing the life of my mother inspire of medical reports.

“My mother was not just a woman, she was a strong and determined woman. She was a workaholic who work round the clock. My father was a missionary who earned barely nothing, but my mother worked very hard to make sure we went to the best school in the world. That is the kind of woman the entire Nigeria is celebrating today.

“Let me thank his Excellency and all the dignitaries that are here in this funeral for giving a shoulder to cry on. Your calls and show of concern were enough to dry up my tears. I thank you so much for your show of love.

“Let me particularly thank the progressive governors that are here, the national secretary, the government and people of Plateau state let by His Excellency Gov Caleb Mutfwang.

“Let me thank my father President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, you know I have no father and mother any more, please adopt me as your first son”

Chairman of Progressive Governors’ Forum and the governor of Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, who represented by the governor of Ogun state, Gov Dapo Abiodun, said that the testimonies given at the funeral shows that the mother of our national chairman is resting in heaven and that was enough consolation to those he left behind.

Senator Godswill Akpabio led the National Assembly members to the funeral , which was attended by a number of dignitaries including governors of Akwa Ibom, Edo, Kebbi, Delta, Taraba, Lagos, Ogun, Kogi, Jigawa states respectively.

Former governors of Plateau state, speaker and members of the Plateau State House of Assembly, serving and former ministers and others