By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace prize laureate who helped end apartheid in South Africa, has died aged 90.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, said the churchman’s death marked “another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans.”

A contemporary of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, Tutu was one of the driving forces behind the movement to end the policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1991.

READ ALSO: UN chief mourns Desmond Tutu’s death

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, have mourned the death of Tutu.

President Buhari in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina said he believes the death of the iconic teacher, human rights activist, leader of thought, scholar and philanthropist, further creates a void in a world in dire need of wisdom, integrity, courage and sound reasoning, which were qualities that the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, 1984, typified and exemplified in words and actions.

As a South African, global citizen and renowned world leader, the President affirmed that the historic role Archbishop Tutu played in the fight against apartheid, enduring physical assaults, jail terms and prolonged exile, took him beyond the pulpit to global, political relevance, and his position, under President Nelson Mandela, in heading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission provided healing and direction for his country and the world.

On his part, Chief Obasanjo  recalled the role played by late Desmond Tutu in getting the country’s debt canceled, declaring that his death was a personal loss to him.

Obasanjo in a condolence letter to the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, yesterday, said “Over the years, Reverend Tutu had shown focused, credible, bold, sensitive and purposeful leadership not just to members of the Anglican Church but to all Christians.”

The letter his Special Assistant on Media,  Kehinde Akinyemi, added that Tutu had been part of building and strengthening the Anglican Church, and its eminent place in the Church system in South Africa today is not unrelated to his selfless service and leadership.”

On the country’s debt cancellation role, Obasanjo said that he acknowledged late Tutu’s “uncommon solidarity and the deep passion with which he had argued Nigeria’s case for full debt cancellation by the contents of his letter to Mr. Gordon Brown, the then United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, during my administration as the President of Nigeria.

“This his heroic advocacy effort  with respect to Nigeria’s indebtedness to the Paris Club on behalf of Nigeria was very much in his character.”

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