Limann family issues statement of condolences on the death of ex-president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari

The first executive president of Nigeria Shehu Shagari, was reported dead. On December 28, 2018. He was 93. Shagari was Nigeria’s president in the second Republic that started in 1979. He was reelected in 1983.

Mrs. D. F. Limann  has released the following statement on behalf of her family. 

On behalf of my family, I offer my deepest condolences to the family of former President Shehu Shagari as well as the Government and good people of Nigeria.

The late President Shagari and my husband, former President Hilla Limann shared a unique relationship which commenced as contemporaries in the 1980s and blossomed into a friendship which stood the test of time particularly

We shall never forget the kind hospitality the late President Shehu Shagari extended to my children and I in Lagos, Nigeria when my husband was in detention in Ghana. We also remember with gratitude, that even in his twilight years President Shehu Shagari led the Government of Nigeria delegation that attended my husband’s funeral in early 1998.

President Shehu Shagari’s legacy is an encouragement that posterity will always vindicate leaders who were once erroneously deemed weak because they sought to entrench democratic values, good governance and human rights during tenuous periods in their nations’ history. In keeping with many similarities former Presidents Shagari and Limann shared, they were later recognized by many for their selfless, humble and exemplary leadership; statesmen who were simply way ahead of their time and thus misunderstood and misrepresented to the later regret of their countries.

To the family of former President Shagari, we offer our prayers and heartfelt condolences and hope that you will find solace in and be comforted by the fact that he lived a rich and full life worth celebrating. Be consoled that though he has passed on, his legacy lives on.

Our message to the Government and people of Nigeria is that as you mourn the death of the former President, it is our hope that just as about a year ago, the Government and people of Ghana joined our family in celebrating my husband posthumously, that you will do same in honour of a humble yet great stateman in the person of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, only President of the 2nd Republic of Nigeria.

Once again, we humbly offer our thoughts, prayers and condolences to the family of the deceased and the good people of Nigeria.

With profound sympathies, Mrs. Dora Fulera Limann