ENUGU: Ekweremadu Battles Chime

Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President, exploits his chummy relationship with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan to hijack the 2011 PDP governorship ticket in Enugu state from the second-term-seeking Governor Sullivan Chime.


That the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, aspires to occupy the Lion Building, Enugu come 2011 on the platform of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is now an open secret. Ekweremadu is from Mpu community in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu state, and he represents Enugu West Senatorial District at the national assembly. (Picture is that Governor Chime; Right is Senator Ike Ekweremadu)

Before now, the Deputy Senate President’s ambition seemed shrouded in secrecy, as he was not so sure of support from the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s presidency should he openly decide to run against the second-term-seeking incumbent Governor Sullivan Iheanacho Chime.

As a matter of fact, Chime remains one of the closest state governors to ailing President Yar’Adua. It is, to this effect, widely held that were Yar’Adua to be in control of state of affairs in the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), he (Yar’Adua) would not readily lend his presidential weight behind Ekweremadu’s governorship bid in Enugu state. It is common knowledge that apart from on close official quarters, Chime and Yar’Adua’s family, also, enjoy very personal relationships. The implication of this is that for President Yar’Adua, Chime’s second term in office as Governor is a foregone conclusion.
But now, the political coast appears somehow conducive for Senator Ekweremadu to bring his hitherto latent governorship ambition in the state to the fore, especially, as President Yara’Adua has, following his illness, given way to Jonathan. And nobody is certain of how long it would take Yar’Adua to fully recover from his ailment.

Senator Ekweremadu, it would be recalled, has been one of the greatest supporters of Goodluck Jonathan’s pre and pro acting presidency in the senate.

To buttress this relationship, it was Ekweremadu, as Deputy Senate President, who actually moved the motion at the floor of the senate to the effect that Jonathan should be empowered to take over from sick Yar’Adua as Acting President. Not a few Nigerians including, perhaps, the Deputy Senate President himself, seem convinced that President Yar’Adua may be back on his feet so soon, a situation which has given rise to alignment and realignment of political forces across the states of the country.

Because past President Olusegun Obasanjo seemed to have related more closely with Vice President Jonathan than President Yar’Adua (although he single-handedly installed both of them), the thinking in some quarters is that, with Jonathan’s emergence as Acting President, Obasanjo would become the defacto President, ruling the country rather than Jonathan. Therefore, cronies of Obasanjo immediately began to throw their political weights about across the states, believing that they are now in control, power having changed hands to one of their own-Jonathan. Senator Ekweremadu is believed to belong to this class of politicians.
On record is the fact that Governor Chime, alongside other Yar’Adua acolytes, stoutly resisted Jonathan’s empowerment as Acting President. In fact, Chime used the occasion of the Conference of South East Governors, held January 27, to vehemently argue against Jonathan’s ascension. Speaking from the pavement of a lawyer, Governor Chime insisted that sick Yar’Adua was still fit to run the affairs of the country, and, as such, should not be replaced by the Vice President.

“It is true that President Yar’Adua is ill, but it is not enough to replace him with his vice for now. He is still capable of steering the ship of the country. The constitution does not say that when a president is ill, his vice should take over power from him”, Chime asserted during the Governors’ conclave.

Governor Chime having, so to say, unsuccessfully, led the continuity train of ailing Yar’Adua, the permutation of Ekweremadu and, of course, his supporters is that he (Chime) will, naturally, run out of favor with Acting President Jonathan, and might lose his second term bid in Enugu state.

Many believe that it is this calculation that has propelled Ekweremadu to quickly oil his political machinery and line-up across the seventeen councils of the state, with a view to emerging Governor after Chime would have served out his first term next year, 2011.

Thus on Friday February 6 this year, almost immediately after the inauguration of Jonathan as Acting President, Ekweremadu cruised back home to address his supporters and stake-holders who, before then, had been discussing his governorship ambition with hushed tones.
Ironically, the senator had, in the past, probably because of unfavorable political climate for him at home, stringently, denied that he was going to contest the governorship of the state against Chime. Ekweremadu had used the opportunity of a PDP rally in Enugu West senatorial zone to debunk the notion that he was nursing guber ambition.

Ekweremadu went further to embrace Governor Chime in the full glare of party faithful, assuring him (Chime) that he (Ekweremadu) would support his second term bid. Highlighting all the achievements of Chime’s government so far, Ekweremadu maintained that God had given him all the blessings of life, elevated him to many positions of authority until he got to that of Deputy Senate President of Nigeria. Ekweremadu, therefore, wondered how he would then descend low as to come to struggle for the governorship of the state with Chime. But the turn of events now indicate that this denial was Senator Ekweremadu’s stratagem of playing the politics of the time.

At the moment, Insider Weekly can authoritatively reveal that the former Secretary to Enugu State Government (SSG) has deployed all the arsenals in his political armory towards realizing his Enugu state gubernatorial quest come 2011.

Conferred with the traditional title of Ikeoha Ndigbo by Eze (Dr) C.I. Ilomuanya (Obi of Obingwu), Chairman, South-East Council of Traditional Rulers about two years ago, Ekweremadu inaugurated IKEOHA Foundations in specific areas, including football, education and human empowerment to facilitate his political project. IKEOHA foundations are founded on the vision of empowering women and youth of Ekweremadu’s constituency.

As displayed in the Deputy Senate President’s personal website: www.ikeekweremadu.com, IKEOHA Education Foundation has, since 2005, awarded scholarships to indigent students of the senatorial zone. Apart from using the scholarship schemes to create awareness on his ambition, Ekweremadu, also, introduced a regular football competition amongst communities in the constituency. And he has been doling out trophies and cash prizes at the end of the contests which are held amidst pomp.

Ekweremadu.com lists constituency services of the senator to include micro-credit scheme for the needy, as well as generation of employment and appointments for the constituents.

From all indications, Governor Chime is not unaware of the schemes of Ekweremadu to hijack the 2011 PDP governorship ticket of the state, there halting his second term bid. This development could explain the cold relationship which has existed between both since the inception of this political dispensation.

Political pundits, also, think that it could have been as a result of Chime’s lack of confidence in Ekweremadu that made him not to pay homage to him (Ekweremadu), on Saturday January 16 this year, when he undertook an official tour to his senatorial zone, in particular, Ohofia Ndumeze in Aninri council area, to hand over staff of office to the community’s monarch, Onyioha Godwin Nwanjoku.
Rather than visit the home of Senator Ekweremadu who, himself, was one of the recipients of chieftaincy titles from the newly inaugurated Igwe Nwanjoku, Governor Chime chose to visit the home of former Speaker of Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Abel Chukwu, before returning back to Enugu. The interpretation, to many, was that the former Speaker (Hon. Chukwu), rather than the Deputy Senate President (Ekweremadu), is Governor Chime’s preferred leader of the party (PDP) in the zone.

As it were, while Senator Ekweremadu may derive his political strength to actualize his guber dream from his much-talked-about goodwill to his people and his closeness to Acting President Jonathan, Chime derives his from his incumbency and acclaimed developmental projects in the state, especially, his administration’s aggressive reconstruction of dilapidated roads in Enugu metropolis.

Culled from Insider Weekly Magazine