Former Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, has been lauded for his exemplary performance, as a member of cabinet in the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
A cross-section of dignitaries who converged on the Press Centre of the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Benin, said that Agba had through his remarkable supervisory role at the Budget and National Planning Ministry, set a standard for successive ministers to keep up with.
Speaking on the crowded occasion, Comrade Festus Alenkhe, Chairman of the Edo State Council of NUJ, said that journalists in the state considered Prince Agba for the honour, since he had established multiple solid projects all over Nigeria and Edo, his home state.
He said that through the award, Prince Agba would be encouraged to do more in his future public engagements in the service of the people.
High Priest (Dr) Osemwengie Ebohon, who is also a veteran journalist and longstanding patron of the state NUJ, praised Prince Agba for the numerous projects he facilitated in Edo State and other parts of the country.
Dr Ebohon, a soothsayer and prominent African Traditional Religion advocate, said: “For Prince Clem Agba, I will get used to the name by the time he becomes the governor of my state. I phoned a lot of friends and I have not met him seriously.
“His achievements are not only in Edo State, but pockets of the country, as a minister of state in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, I have seen his achievements, which have become a stupendous body of achievements on his side. It is going to be a door opener for him anywhere he goes.
“They told me the much he has done for NUJ in this compound. I have been patron to the union for over forty years. In every century, God gives a child to a people that will uplift them. And that is Clement Agba”, Chief Ebohon noted.
Earlier on, the chairman of the occasion, High Chief Shehu Musa Isiwele, applauded Edo NUJ for deeming it fit to honour Prince Agba, adding that it had gone to confirm what he had always believed and said that Agba was a great leader and performer, who was widely respected for his immense contributions to Edo State and the Nigerian society.
Isiwele, a notable Muslim scholar, particularly thanked Agba for the people-oriented projects he said he brought to the Edo central senatorial district, where Isiwele hails from.
High Chief Isewele, a former National President of the Roads Employer’s Association of Nigeria (RETEAN), and holder of the chieftaincy title of Agbojie I of Uromi kingdom, said that with Agba’s indelible good performances, he had come to believe that to be a minister was not to only stay idle at Abuja and come home empty.
Others who spoke in the same vein on the occasion, included Mr Sunday Dare, immediate past minister for youths and sports development, and Prince Goddy Jeddy Agba, also an immediate past minister of state for power.
Agba, a royalty and son to the departed Oliola (king) of Uneme-Uzanu kingdom of Etsako East LGA of the state, used the opportunity to speak on some of the highlights of his stewardship as a minister of state.
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