Why I Did Not Celebrate When I Turned 70 – Atiku

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has disclosed that he could not celebrate his 70th birthday because he lost some of his family members in the same year.

According to him, he lost two younger brothers, his father and uncle.

Atiku revealed this during a thanksgiving service held at the Methodist Church Nigeria, Cathedral of Unity, Wuse, Zone 3 for the 80th birthday of a former Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Onyema Ugochukwu.

He explained that he was the first out of his siblings to attain the age of 70, just as he acknowledged God’s faithfulness in his life, and promised to continue to serve God and humanity more than ever before.

He said, “My dear friends, I thank you for taking out time traveling from all places to come to this birthday celebration. Ten years ago, when I turned 70, I was the first of my siblings to reach the age of 70. It should have been a very big celebration, but it wasn’t.

“Because 2014, I lost my two younger brothers in that year itself. My father, and then my uncle, and there was no urge to celebrate. There were seven. My eldest brother, let him be known, was the best of us all. But he died at 64. My older sister died in her 50s. My immediate junior brother died in the war. My sister, Chinyere, an evangelist, is here with us, and is alive. Ude Chukwu, died February 2014. And in April, another”