Ekweremadu Under Probe

Apart from a third term ‘ban’, constituents of Enugu West Senatorial District demand an account of stewardship from the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu.

Fresh trouble precariously hangs on the beefy neck of the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, in his home state of Enugu like the sword of Damocles.

Apart from a resolution ‘banning’ second-term-serving Mpu-born Senator from further returning to the senate, a section of Ekweremadu’s constituents in Enugu West District have ‘summoned’ him to come forward to render his account of stewardship for his over six years of serving in the senate on their behalf. First elected senator representing Enugu West in 2003, Ekweremadu would be serving out his second-term by the 2011 general elections. (Picture up left is Senator Ekweremadu; immediate right is Sir OAU Onyema, possible replacement to Ekweremadu)

Evidently, the majority of Ekweremadu’s constituents (mainly from Ezeagu and Udi council areas of the state) have, of late, stoutly risen in opposition against his touted third-term ambition in the senate. Awgu, Oji River and Ekweremadu’s Aninri, also, make up the senatorial zone.

In a resolution, dated February 9, 2011, the Ezeagu General Assembly resolved against supporting Ekweremadu for a third term outing in the senate. The resolution, signed by Prince Richard Obiora Ozobu and Chief Charles Nwokike, President and Secretary respectively, among other things, affirms thus: ‘The current senatorial seat for Enugu West senatorial zone which shall fall vacant in 2011 is considered zoned to Ezeagu and Udi for representation in keeping with the known and age-long method of rotation of political offices for the area’.

Ezeagu General Assembly adds that endorsement for second term appointment or election for political office holders representing them should not be automatic, but ‘shall, hence-forth, be based on record of credible performance of the office holder during his first tenure’.

To underscore their seriousness, the Assembly, recently, in a letter signed by Prince Ozobu, dated July 7, 2010, invited Senator Ekweremadu to appear for an interactive session before her on August 7 in Enugu. The interactive session, according to the letter, is meant to offer the senator the opportunity to address his constituents on how he has managed their affairs at upper legislative chambers of this nation.

Specifically, Ekweremadu’s constituents want him to account for his management of all the constituency allowances to the constituents within his period in office. The embattled senator is, also, expected to address the constituents on constituency projects he executed in the council, as well as across the entire senatorial district.

It is worthy of mention, at this junction that this letter for scrutiny was, also, sent out to other elected politicians from the area, including Paul Anikwe, loquacious legislator representing Ezeagu constituency in the state Assembly and Chief Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, representing Ezeagu/ Udi Federal Constituency.

Prince Ozobu laments the alleged insensitivity of some political office holders to the plights of their people, stressing that none of the national assembly members from Enugu West District has ever taken time out to render account of their services to their people over the years.

“We only hear of constituency allowances in the media. We do not feel the impact of these constituency allowances in the zone. We need to know what they (our representatives) are doing at Abuja. It is our constitutional rights to know what our representatives are doing for us”, Ozobu submits.

Ezeagu General Assembly is not alone in her equivocation that there is no third term tenure for any of its elected representatives, Senator Ekweremadu inclusive.
To this effect, the Assembly, in a joint resolution with Udi People’s Assembly, foreclosed any third term outing in the zone for any of their elective officials.

Of course, the position of the Udis is not, in the least, new, as they have been in the vanguard of the struggle for a more competent and humane candidate to take over from Ike Ekweremadu as soon as his second tenure expires 2011.

Apart from his alleged woeful failure in positively impacting on the lives of the constituents of Enugu West, irrespective of the huge constituency allowances at his disposal, Ekweremadu’s constituents continue to accuse him of crash insensitivity to their general wellbeing. It is part of the complaints of the constituents that, rather than deploy the constituency allowances in bettering the lot, he endlessly acquires property running into billions of naira to their detriment.

For instance, the senator stands accused of shunning the Udi Day Celebration which was held at the council’s headquarters on June 5 this year. During the event, all the traditional rulers in Udi land handed over an ‘ofor’ (traditional authority) to Governor Sullivan Chime for his excellent performances in office so far. The monarchs and, indeed, the Udis, similarly, used the opportunity to endorse Chime for a second term in office. But this occasion, as well attended as it was, was snubbed by the invited Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

But will Senator Ekweremadu honor this particular ‘all important’ invitation to appear before his constituents to tell them how he has managed their affairs at the national assembly in these past years?

Although nobody can lay claim to knowing the Mpu-born senator’s mind-set for now, his high-pitched utterances and defiant body language tend to suggest that he is likely to ignore the invitations extended to him from both the Ezeagu General Assembly and Udi People’s Assembly, an organization of his constituents.

This is more so as Ekweremadu, while speaking to journalists in his Enugu palatial home on Saturday July 18, literarily threw due process and courtesy over-board, and declared his intention to run for Enugu West senate slot for a third term. And while countering some of the earlier reports on him by Insider Weekly magazine, Ekweremadu, taking a voyage in self-conceit, dared anyone who thinks he can challenge him at the polls in 2011 to come forward for a political duel.

‘I will run for the senate for the third term in my zone in 2011. Anyone who thinks he can match up with me should pick form let us try’, the Ikeoha reportedly boasted.

As it were, many political analysts have continued to wonder why Ekweremadu, even if he would remain in the senate ‘for ever’, should not have the courtesy to consult with the Governor Chime who is the party’s leader in the state, as well as the entire party leadership before making his intentions known to members of the public.

‘Could this action of his be interpreted to mean that Senator Ekweremadu is bigger than Governor Sullivan Chime, and Enugu state chapter of the PDP as a whole?’ said an agitated constituent.

Yet another constituent opines: ‘The foregoing shows to what extent Senator Ekweremadu insults us as his constituents. Apart from not having any regard and respect for His Excellency, Governor Sullivan Chime, this Deputy Senate President thing has entered Ekweremadu’s head so much that he has no regard for us as a people. How does he think he can just secure another ticket without inputs from us, his constituents? Let’s watch and see!’

Ekweremadu’s constituents simply believe that he is not in the senate to better their lot. Outside the constituency allowances, Ekweremadu, on record, receives a total of N41.581 million (N41.6 million) as salary from the national assembly. His constituents affirm that the senator has never used his elevated position to, even, change the miserable lives of indigenes of his Mpu community, let alone impacting on the lives of constituents from the other parts of the senatorial district.

Little surprise, therefore, that the powerful committee of ‘Friends of Sir OAU Onyema’ have been ceaselessly campaigning for him to come up to challenge the now third-term-seeking Ekweremadu.

‘Friends of Sir OAU Onyema’ describes Ekweremadu as a man with an unquenchable thirst for political power which he ultimately converts to his personal benefits. The group has been campaigning for ‘Onyema for Senate’ since February this year, and has vowed to stop at nothing to get OAU Onyema, a Knight of St. John International (KSJ) installed senate in place of the lack-lustre Senator Ekweremadu.

But unlike Ekweremadu, Onyema, Co-ordinator of Industrial Parks Development in the office of the Governor, is a stickler to due process. Thus Sir Onyema maintains that he is waiting for the nod of his boss, Governor Chime, as well as the endorsement of the PDP leadership in Enugu state to go into the race for the titanic political battle with the largely ‘Abuja’ based Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

Findings show that Sir OAU has been subjected to incessant threatening messages since his political friends started mounting pressures for him to run for Enugu West senate seat. Perhaps, to justify the direction such threatening messages have been coming from, Ekweremadu, during his recent media chat, alluded to the fact that most of the campaigns of calumny and publications by Insider Weekly (which, of course, critical on his person) were sponsored by one of his neighbors. But Ekweremadu stopped short of mentioning the name of Sir OAU Onyema as his possible assailant.

On his own part, Onyema denies sponsoring any publication or campaigns of calumny against the Deputy Senate President, even when he (Onyema) advises him (Ekweremadu) to climb down from his Olympian Height and play the game of politics according to its rules, instead of groping in the dark, looking for escape goats.

However, Insider Weekly magazine authoritatively gathered that Ekweremadu’s boasts are traced to his suspected infiltration of Chime government. What this infiltration is aimed at achieving is that some commissioners and political appointees of the Governor were, hitherto, working in concert with him (Ekweremadu) to achieve his third term desire. The magazine learnt that Governor Chime had got a wind of this, and, as a result, carried out a minor cabinet shake-up which sidelined the suspected (bad legs) officials in the scheme of things in his government.

For now, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has a date with history and his constituents come August 7. Will he answer to their calls? Or will he call their bluff? Is it really difficult to render an account of steward for constituents who, actually, have the right to know? Will the Enugu West constituents fold their arms and allow Ekweremadu slight all of them, and eventually move to walk back to the senate unchallenged? Answers to these posers, certainly, lie in the womb of time!

Culled from: Insider Weekly Magazine, Nigeria