Rivers state governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, weekend, said it is more rewarding to celebrate the military and members of the security agencies for their contributions and sacrifices while they are alive, and not when they are dead.
He spoke at the inter-denominational thanksgiving service held in commemoration of the 2025 Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Chaplaincy, Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA), Rumuibekwe in Obio/Akpor local government area on Sunday.
The governor said it is unfair to remember fallen heroes, as the yearly Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration represents, but to also put in place a more enduring measure of acknowledging and celebrating officers and men in active service for their gallantry.
Governor Fubara assured that his administration will do everything possible to make life better for officers and men involved in various security operations, including legionnaires and survivors of fallen heroes in state.
He said: “But I want to say that our government will not be a government that will put its energy only in remembering the late soldiers, and those who have died in the course of defending this country.
“I want to change the narrative. We want to also support, strongly, those people that they have left behind, so they will know what the government and the good people of Rivers state did for them. Let it also be that people will be remembered by the government for taking the right decision for them and helping them develop to be something great in our country.
“We want to assure the legionnaires on whose instance this occasion is centred and the armed forces that this government will continue to do its best to protect lives of our people, and to take the welfare of our people seriously.”