Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, family members, and friends gathered in Abeokuta to celebrate the 20th memorial service of former First Lady Stella Obasanjo. Dignitaries at the Church service held at Chapel of Christ the Glorious King, OOPL, Abeokuta, on Saturday include former Governors Gbenga Daniel and Ibikunle Amosun. Obasanjo, in a short response during an interview after the service, said, ” We are celebrating a life of service.” In his testimony during the Church service, John Abebe, younger brother of the late wife of the former president, described her as someone who hardly got angry and always put up a smile. ”Sister Stella was somebody you just couldn’t get angry with because she would always smile through everything, every difficulty. ”
I remember when my oldest brother passed on, as soon as my sister came from Abeokuta to see my parents or to stay with my parents, everything changed in the house. ” With her smile and huge encouragement to my parents, the grief was reduced. ”So, when I saw this announcement a few days ago, that was what occupied my heart throughout, and the funeral reception of the deceased held at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Okot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, the Vice President said the late Usoro’s life was a profound testimony of the power of prayer and the transformative influence of motherhood anchored in faith.
“The exemplary Ms. Emem Nnana Usoro is a daughter she couldn’t have been prouder of. She stands today as a symbol of a mother’s dream fulfilled—a story defined by sacrifice, prayer, and perseverance,” VP Shettima said. The Vice President described Emem’s rise to the CBN Deputy Governor’s position as a testament to her mother’s refusal to settle for mediocrity and her belief in excellence anchored in faith. “The height that Ms. Usoro has attained in public service, as a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, tells the story of a mother who refused to settle for mediocrity, who believed that her child could compete with the best of the world’s minds and remain anchored in faith,” he said. According to his spokesman, Stanley Nkwoccha, Shettima emphasised that late Usoro was more than a mother to her family, serving as a pillar of her church, a mentor to women, and support for the less privileged.
He noted that she exemplified humility and compassion while raising her family to understand that excellence without empathy is emptiness. “When we celebrate the Late Deaconess Eno Nnana Usoro’s achievements, what readily comes to us are the stations of those she left behind. When we celebrate them, we are in truth celebrating the woman who shaped their character—the mother who toiled in silence, whose sacrifices were the scaffolds upon which their destiny was built,” the Vice President noted. I knew that whatever I was going to say today was going to be based on her smile. ”Olumuyiwa, her son in his late 40s now, 20 years after his mom passed on, has a 17-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son, and they are doing very well. ”
We miss Stella a lot, because if she had been around, she would have been the mother who would have taken over from my parents,” he said.
