Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma

By Adibe Emenyonu

Former Chief of Army Staff and Defence Minister, Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma, has expressed his readiness to partner with the Edo State Government in the provision of infrastructure and income generation through the TY Danjuma Foundation.

General Danjuma disclosed this during a visit of the Board of Directors of the TY Danjuma Foundation to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, at the Government House Benin City, recently.

He said “I’m open and ready and willing to learn what the actual needs of the people are and we’ll do our bit. We are not here to replace the government, we are here to help.”

Acknowledging that the organisation cannot do much without the assistance of the government, he thanked Governor Oshiomhole for the cooperation the Foundation had been receiving from the general public and the institutions in the state as well as the assistance from government.

Responding, Oshiomhole praised the courage of General Danjuma for setting up the foundation.

He added, “You have chosen to devote part of your own resources to address some of the challenges confronting our people is a great thing. If every Nigerian reasons that way and we all volunteer to part with some of our resources to address economic challenges confronting our people, the pace of development would be faster”.

He stressed the need for Nigerians to recognise that they come from somewhere and should contribute to the development of their areas, saying “you have helped to put our resources which we could have used in those areas to do other things”.

“I want to assure you that we value this friendship. Around the world people are beginning to appreciate that sometimes certain activities are more competently handled by non-governmental organisations” he said.

On the entourage of General Danjuma were Miss Thelma Ekiyor, Executive Director of the Foundation; General Hamidu, Prof. Dean Corrie, Mr. Luke Robert, Dr. Osagie Ehanire and Senator Daisy Danjuma.