Fugitive James Onanefe Ibori has issued a eulogy to his former friend and political associate, former president Yar'Adua, who died on Wednesday.  But the eulogy is being received with derision, even by members of the Yar'Adua cabal of which Ibori was a leader until his recent disappearance after the EFCC declared him wanted. One of Yar'Adua's associates told Saharareporters that for all the protection and support Ibori enjoyed under Yar'Adua, he ought to have been brave enough to appear at his burial in Katsina. The source, who didn't want to be named, told SaharaReporters that Ibori should have shown courage by coming to Katsina to pay his last respects to a loyal friend the way his adversary, former EFCC chair Nuhu Ribadu, dramatically appeared in Lagos and visited Gani Fawehinmi’s family before his final burial.

Another source told SaharaReporters, however, that Ibori is mulling a surprise visit to Yar'Adua's wife, but he had not been sighted as at the time of filing this report.

The following is Ibori’s eulogy, as reported by his media assistant, Tony Eluemunor:

Chief James Onanefe said that the long illness leading to the death of former President Umar Musa Yar’Adua has denied Nigeria the opportunity of knowing what a true Yar’Adua presidency would have achieved.

Calling Yar'Adua a veritable agent of change, Ibori said that the former President reduced the tension in the land when he instituted the Government of National Unity, thereby giving the members of the opposition parties a sense of belonging instead pursuing the winner takes it all policy. In that peace-making vein, he sought to end the militancy in the Niger Delta region by granting amnesty to all the militants and thereby challenged them to embrace peace and development. That move alone nearly doubled Nigeria's revenue as oil production doubled from a lowly 800 thousand barrels per day production level to the 1.8 million barrels a day we presently produce.

Ibori said that Yar'Adua was a visionary leader whose dream was encapsulated in the much-admired Seven-point agenda, which would have totally transformed the nation if illness had not hobbled him.

Yet, pushing back the darkness of the reign of impunity and despotism, Yar'Adua introduced a bright new dawn as he embraced the rule of law, making the courts matter" as they should. Saying that Yar'Adua's long illness provided a trying period for the family, Ibori prayed Almighty God to grant the Yar'Adua family, including his aged mother and his wife Turai, the fortitude to bear this immense loss.

Ibori said that the greatest honour that Nigerians can do to the departed statesman is to embrace his ideals and ensure that despotism and reign of impunity is not allowed resurgence in Nigeria. He advised that , as people mourn the passing of the former President, they should remember to thank God for teaching Nigerians a lesson through the Yar'Adua Presidency; that power must be wielded responsibly and only in the service of the populace; not self. He prayed God to give sweet repose to the soul of Yar'Adua, who proved that a leader could be transparent, eschew duplicity, and refuse to hound his critics or see divisive politics in everything, even as he respected the independence of the other arms of government, and was committed to electoral reforms. The result was that he respected the basic human dignity of all Nigerians.