The immediate past Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, needs to be told some home truth. That truth is bitter in every sense. It hurts too. That is truth for you. When told in full, it is brutal.

Chief Ekweremadu needs to be told that everything that has a beginning has a definite end. That is certain. That is as sure as day follows night. He needs to be told that there is a time for every purpose under heaven – a time to be born and a time to die. A time to shine, and a time to stand down and allow others space to also shine. That is natural. That aphorism is as ancient as the hills. It takes courage to tell a man the bitter truth. But having for long been consumed by the alluring lucre of office, would Ekweremadu listen? He only needs courage and the strength of steel to understand and accept this truth.

Days ago, according to a viral www.nationonlineng.net article titled “Ekweremadu rings bell!!,” he, Ekweremadu, reportedly at an undisclosed hotel in Enugu, was regaling his acolytes with his preparations to contest for governor of Enugu State in the coming election. He told his audience that he had oiled his fast-fading political machinery to gun for the epic contest, affirming that only Providence alone will stop him.

Indeed, anyone who knows Enugu well knows that God blessed the state and the people in many more ways. Till now, He has not ceased to do so. Any wonder then why government after government prides that “Enugu is in the hands of God?”

Enugu is peopled by men and women whose love for peace and goodwill has timed thousands of unbroken years. A people who long adopted and accepted the age-long belief in “Live and let live,” and have for long, patterned themselves to live by its dictates.

Against this backdrop, the watching world has a crystal clear picture of the peaceful posture of the average Enugu indigene. That is something innate. Something that runs deep in them. They hardly hurt a fly, or rock the boat – no matter what, no matter the provocation. Never! Not when someone tries to rub it in on them. That is why political office holders do the unthinkable and yet get away with it unquestioned, unfazed.

But sadly, that seeming ignorance, that I-don’t- care attitude of the average Enugu person is becoming their undoing. Now believe it, quietude is a burden, or an albatross or even a cancer. Or the three! Head or tail, each of them kills and does so gradually without the victim knowing it. That is the malignant tumor Ndi Enugu have been dealing with in ages past, without knowing it. That is now becoming the proverbial hole in which the reticent Ndi Enugu might plunge themselves into soon. So, they need to wake up. Signs that this might happen are beginning to appear. But God forbid that a thousand, a million times!

Now back to the meat of the matter. Everyone vividly recalls that prior to the return to civilian rule in Nigeria in 1999, many buccaneers easily uncannily positioned themselves to profit from the common pool called government. Ekweremadu is one of such. Ever since, he claimed a vantage place at the fountain side, he has refused to let go. Rather, he gets emboldened, unperturbed at the call to allow others a chance too. Rather, he is only switching roles and offices. As hours roll bye, he keeps profiting from our collective ignorance and seeming amnesia. Over the years, his greed and self aggrandisement had graduated to an act – a trade taken several notches up the pecking order. Now, he feels eminently entitled – a feeling that no one – not even the gods has the guts to stop him. That is where Ndi Enugu have found themselves at the moment. But they only allowed it to happen.

However, here is the good news. A reawakening fire has been ignited. A gusty wind of awareness is sweeping down from the mountains, targeting to blow away all the so-called political office holders who have made prime positions their birthright, without caring a hoot about what they people feel and say, Does Ekweremadu know this? Perhaps not!



Now, someone needs to take a message to Ekweremadu. Someone needs to point him to the trend in the neigbouring Anambra State. A quick recap will suffice. At a time, a band of political bandits was on the rampage in Anambra State. A family took it upon itself to ride roughshod over the people, taking the state by the jugular, forcing Ndi Anambra to fight the fight of life. Today, they stand liberated. A happy people.

Now, let’s turn to Imo State. Lately, the immediate past governor, done with an eight-year term, drove too hard at installing his son in-law. Now, how the project itself fueled by greed failed and fell forlorn is sure to claim a chapter in the Nigerian political history books. The bandwagon effect has left that state in a state in quagmire. That is a silhouette of what greed can do. It can spill into Enugu State. Is Ekweremadu listening?



Now, at the so-called Enugu meet, Ekweremadu had claimed that his road to the Government House had been paved for him, serenading his listeners that his ambition is already done and dusted by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, leaving that sounding more like name dropping. So, the governor needs to come clear on this.



Going by Ekweremadu’s claim, he has already primed himself to take over from the incumbent Governor Ugwuanyi. He appears sold on this. One hopes he is counting the cost as well!



But what Ekweremadu fails to realise is that all of them who have failed to profit the people – just they only – now have a tall mountain to climb.



As it stands, Ekweremadu has said it loud and clear that the people do not matter. Because he can have his way. But probably not in this one.



For the records, Ekweremadu remains the only Enugu politician that has refused to vacate the stage despite being within the corridors of power for 25 unbroken years. One stands to be corrected if he has ever done any other job other than profiting from the government.



He was appointed chairman of Aninri Local Government Area in 1997. At the return of civil rule in 1999, he was made chief-of-staff to Governor Chimaroke Nnamani and served in that capacity till 2001. He went on to become the Secretary to the Enugu State Government in 2001, a post he held till 2002.

Switching gear, Ekweremadu on April 12, 2003 was elected to the Senate and has so far served in various offices, first becoming the deputy Senate president in 2007. Till now, he is still a serving senator. He has not allowed anyone from his zone to take a shot at the plum office.

To say that Ekweremadu is popular in Enugu State is open to a big debate. But to affirm that he is only being tolerated is a statement of fact. Only using the characteristic bravado which is easily the trade mark of the average Nigerian politician.

Certainly, the true character and testimony of Ekweremadu was told to him emphatically in 2019 when he visited Nuremberg in Germany to celebrate the New Yam festival. While there, he was handed a raw deal – physically assaulted, and beaten black and blue – just to let him know how nauseating the content of his character had been to many, especially in the Diaspora who cannot put up with his style. The message he was handed was that all the while he had been taking tinsel for gold. That is his costly mistake. But did he learn a single lesson from that? That is a big No!

At the moment, the big question many ought to be asking Ekweremadu is what has he been doing with his life since he left school in 1987, and in his long years in government? Only reaping big time from the government – all in the name of politics.

Meanwhile many have not ceased to ask questions about his many mansions said to be spread across four countries in the world. Where did he get the money to acquire such property in those urbane communities? This is just one of the many ugly and distressful baggage Ekweremadu is labouriously draging along. One hopes he knows this. He might choose to ignore this. But definitely not the people!

Now, Ekweremadu’s declaration to run for Enugu State governorship rubs insult into injury. That gives him away as a man after his own good alone. That is not different from what many know about him.

Recall that Ekweremadu had come out to contest for Enugu State governorship election years ago, while he was still in the Senate. He and the current governor Ugwuanyi were said to have gone on a collision course then; they took their matter to the Presidency. The Presidency prevailed on him to allow Ugwuanyi be. Is his latest move a pay back from the governor? We are all watching.

In plain language, pundits will tell Ekweremadu that his latest move on the chess board is nothing but an inordinate ambition. He suddenly forgot the existing Enugu Chatter of Equity firmly in place to guarantee justice and fairness in the state. He suddenly forgot that Sullivan Chime from his zone handed over the rein of government to the incumbent. And going by the calculus in place, his zone is not qualified to field a candidate in the nest governorship election. But will his inflated opinion about himself allow his to realise that?

We recall that at the time Ekweremadu was asked to allow Ugwuanyi to be, he turned his bile on his constituency, leaving stakeholders in the area no breather. It is a fact. Election after election, he single handedly decided who emerged even as a councilor. Always going again the wishes and aspirations of the people, and the grain of their happiness. That is a typical Ekweremadu.

Need we recall how Ekweremadu’s desperation to be upwardly mobile threw him into a raged, leaving him embittered when Abubakar Atiku failed to choose as vice president, settling for Peter Obi instead? And he vowed to throw the spanner in the works. Since then there has been no let up to his blind pursuit for power. Now his sight is set next at the Lion Building.

For the initiated, Ekweremadu’s latest plan does not represent a quest to serve the people. None of that! The image before everyone is that of a man desperate to actualise himself bountifully. Then going forward, he will press to extend the shrinking borders of his lord-master brand of politics in Enugu State. And then descend heavily on the growing army of people who find the courage to constantly interrogate his uninspiring and unedifying moral high ground for his actions. Nothing more!

Tony Nnamani, a political scientist, analyst and social commentator writes from Enugu

Joblessly long

How can you copy all this stuff, you could have made it brief nah, who will even finish reading it ??

cherishmichael:
How can you copy all this stuff, you could have made it brief nah, who will even finish reading it ??

I read every sentence.
Why is reading so hard for young people like you today?

John360comng:

I read every sentence. Why is reading so hard for young people like you today?

One must not read every long and rubbish post.

He needs help and prayers unlike the self entitled people

Unhealthy Igbo competition and quest for riches

IamWonderful:
Unhealthy Igbo competition and quest for riches

Tinubu must be Igbo too

NaijaRoyalty:

Tinubu must be Igbo too

What crime was he arrested and found guilty of, don't tell me the misleading drug trafficking with baseless allegations based on hearsay