Ambode signs the condolence register at the Braithwaites

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode says the state government will certainly play a part in the burial of Dr. Tunji Braithwaite who died on Monday.

Ambode, who paid a condolence visit on the Braithwaite’s family in Victoria Island on Wednesday said the government was concerned about the burial of Braithwaite.

“We are concerned about it. We will like to take deeper part in whatever the family is going to do because this is a great loss to Lagos State. This is a great loss of a great man of Lagos State. And we intend to celebrate him in that manner,” he said.

The governor, who commiserated with the family, described Braithwaite’s demise as a major loss not just to Lagos State, but also to Nigeria, saying that “whatever it is that we do even as a government or as a party, they are things that always project us. If there is any person that is on the side of the masses or the poor, this is one thing that Dr. Tunji Braithwaite believed in. He preached it; confessed it and fought it during his lifetime.”

Ambode added that Braithwaite happened to be on other side of political divide, but that his message was consistent and constant as he was always thoroughbred.

“That is why we have come here not only console or say just anything. But we must equally point out that everything I am also doing is on the side of the poor and is on the side of the majority, which he believed in; which he confessed; which he stood for during his lifetime,” he said.

“Notwithstanding, whatever challenges we have on the way, the only thing we have joyed about is that he lived a Christian life from the beginning to the end. I just shared his widow some of the legacies that the Braithwaite left in Anglican Church in Epe and the things they continue to do also. My prayer is that wherever he left in his sermon, we will take it up and also make sure that the philosophy of what he believed in does not die here,” he added.

Ambode further said the name Braithwaite would never die, saying that “I believe strongly that any time that we are reading any legal matter or any other issue that relates to constitutionalism in Nigeria, his own side of the story will remain indelible. On behalf of Lagos State, I want to say this is an event that touched us.”

Responding on behalf of the family, Dr. Omowunmi Braithwaite thanked the Lagos State Governor for the visit, describing her father as a man of values, forthright and fearless.