{"id":3070,"date":"2014-11-14T07:51:03","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T07:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=3070"},"modified":"2014-11-14T07:51:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T07:51:03","slug":"i-couldnt-pay-my-mothers-rent-as-minister-ezekwesili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=3070","title":{"rendered":"I couldn\u2019t pay my mother\u2019s rent as minister \u2013Ezekwesili"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Obiageli<\/a>
Obiageli Ezekwesili<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, said on Thursday that she could not afford to pay her mother\u2019s rent while serving in government.<\/p>\n

This came as she also disclosed that the #BringBackOurGirls<\/em> campaign was an assignment from God.<\/p>\n

Ezekwesili said these during a live interview at the ongoing national convention of the Foursquare Gospel Church, at the Foursquare Camp, Ajebo, Ogun State, on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The former minister had been invited to speak to the congregation on the topic, \u201cIntegrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told the congregation that integrity comes with its cost, adding that she did not spend from her imprest accounts as minister of Solid Minerals, and later, Education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were times I couldn\u2019t pay my mother\u2019s rent, not because I couldn\u2019t make a choice and build her a mansion. When I was in government, we had to withdraw our three children from their school to Baptist Special School. I was (just) answering big titles. Some of you would have said, \u2018They are eating our money\u2019. May God save those who speak without knowledge! I am not saying this so that you can say I am holy, I have my shortcomings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntegrity will cost you a lot. Anyone who talks about integrity without the cost is preaching what I do not know about. Integrity can require a supreme cost from you. You will be persecuted for making the choice of integrity but make that choice nonetheless,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

Ezekwesili, who was a former Vice President (Africa Region) of the World Bank, however, attributed her activism to God and family background.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to ask God to help me identify scriptural verses and the heroes and heroines that made the right choices when it was required. My foundation was strong in the areas of values. My father would say to us, \u2018A good name is better than gold and all the riches of the earth.\u2019 Man is incapable of giving me anything God has not given to me,\u2019\u2019 she added.<\/p>\n

Asked why she chose to be an advocate for the 219 schoolgirls kidnapped at the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, in April, Ezekwesili said she could not afford to pretend \u2018as if nothing happened\u2019, adding that criticisms would not deter her from pressurising the Federal Government to rescue the girls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 219 children of the poor remind me of my own poor background before I became a beneficiary of what God has done. God forbids that Oby Ezekwesili will be in this land and 219 girls, who went to get the same education that I got, were abducted and I will pretend as if nothing happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear in my mind that all kinds of things will be said, but I don\u2019t do jobs; I only do assignments. God said to me that concerning these girls, I should be their voices. In February, 59 boys were slaughtered in their school and we all carried on as if nothing happened. You read my citation,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

Source: The Punch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, said on Thursday that she could not afford to pay her mother\u2019s rent while serving in government. This came as she also disclosed that the #BringBackOurGirls campaign was an assignment from God. Ezekwesili said these during a live interview at the ongoing national convention of the Foursquare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Obiageli-Ezekwesili-360x336.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-Nw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3072,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070\/revisions\/3072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}