President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has pledged the commitment of his administration to invest in Nigeria’s Art and Culture Sector for the education of children and the benefit of mankind.
He stated this during the presentation of a one-hour fifty-five-minute stage play titled; “Abibatu Mogaji : The Opera,” at the Conference Center of the State House in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The Nigerian Leader applauded the producer of the play, Ola Awaakan for exemplifying the life and times of the National Icon, his mother Alhaja Mogaji with legacies of true resilience, mentorship and enduring discipline.
He further stated that the entertainment industry deserves more attention and recognition, he added that nothing could be better than rewarding thorough research than his investment in the values the play represents.
“I thank Ola Awakan, he’s a very great researcher, producer and thoughtful person to have come up with this and I can see some faces of Mama’s children; Tunji Alausa and the rest of the people are here.
“I will invest in the play, nothing could have been better than rewarding a very thorough research on Mama”.
President Tinubu extolled the virtues of his late mother, Hajia Abibatu Mogaji, OON, MFR describing her as a disciplinarian while he appreciated her gifts of character, resilience and determination.
“I can see Adams Oshiomhole there, they know her, many of you here know her. Tough, she’s a disciplinarian and I thank God for the gift that I had from her and that gift is an enduring one; character, determination, and never to give up.
“I’m so grateful to all of you in large numbers, I will have enjoyed the audience more with you, and I’ll find another opportunity to do that, but I asked for this assignment. Through your exercise and commitment, you gave it to me. Only 48 hours ago, they renewed my mandate as the Chairman of ECOWAS. So if they now give me an assignment, I don’t have a choice but to do it.
“Ola Awakan and Yerima, and the members of the cast, I say thank you. We will invest in Nigeria’s culture and art for the education of our children and the benefit of mankind and all of you.
“I thank you for sparing your evening to celebrate my mother, a great woman. Thank you,” The President added.
The Play
The Play, Abibatu Mogaji was written by Ola Awakaan, a graduate of Mass Communication, he was said to have drawn inspiration for the play from a book written by Professor Ahmed Yerima.
Speaking to Voice of Nigeria in an interview after the presentation of the stage play, Awaakan said the need to re-awake the consciousness of some Nigerians to crucial aspects of national life led to the production of the play.
Awaakan said the play while it aims to immortalize Alhaja Mogaji’s legacies also sought to use her ‘well-known attributes of resilience, good governance, leadership qualities, mentorship to inspire generations of Nigerians both present and in the future.
“The nation needs to work on some vital points and those points are mentorship, resilience, and good governance in the society so these features are present in the character of Mama Habibatu Mogaji and we looked at it that the best way we can reach these features to the society is by telling the story of mama.
“So we have to use the story of Mama to immortalise her and to use her attributes of mentorship of good leadership, her attributes of resilience to preach to generations of Nigerians now and the unborn generation”, he added
