Enugu 2023: Ike Ekweremadu Is At It Again

AIF Media

Senator Ike Ekweremadu has been in the corridor of power since 1999. He has served in various capacities in both state and national levels. In all his political pursuits, ndi Enugu and indeed Ndigbo have always come out to support him.

The major problem Senator Ekweremadu has is greed. He would like ndi Enugu and Ndigbo to support him to attain a higher political position, but he wouldn’t want to support others win any political position higher than his.

He belongs to the politics of, “it must be me.”

When Ekweremadu went to senate in 2003, the seat of the Senate president was zoned to southeast. Even as a first time senator, he indicated interest to become the Senate president. He didn’t want to support another high ranking igbo senator, he wanted to bulldoze his way, despite the unofficial understanding that a senate president will come from high ranking members.

In 2007, the deputy senate president was zoned to southeast, Ekweremadu came out and Ndigbo overwhelmingly backed him. He became the deputy senate president from 2007 to 2019.

In 2019, PDP zoned Vice Presidential slot to southeast and again Ike showed interest. He smartly mobilised the southeast caucus of the national assembly to endorse him as the choice of Ndigbo for the position of the vice president. Unfortunately for him, the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar after due diligence, picked Mr Peter Obi, the former governor of Anambra state.

Obi’s choice was roundly rejected by most Igbo leaders. Ekweremadu mobilized them to reject him. It took various interventions with back and forth politics for these Igbo leaders to accept Obi’s nomination.

Enugu State has zoned its 2023 guber ticket to Enugu East Senatorial Zone. Senator Ekweremadu is at it again. He has shown interest to contest the Governorship election of the state even when it is not the turn of his zone. His interest is causing serious decision and creating political tension in the state. But he doesn’t care, it is either him or nobody.

In 2015, he did same to the then governor Sullivan Chime. In an interview the ex governor granted to the Sun newspaper on November 2018, this is what he said about Ike Ekweremadu.

“I was the leader and I took a decision (to pick my successor from Nsukka senatorial zone), which was very easy to sell. Everybody that heard it supported that decision. Incidentally, I didn’t know my senator (Ike Ekweremadu) was actually warming up to be governor and when he heard that pronouncement, everywhere; every paper was full of attacks from him, attacking me, saying when did they reach such decision?

“Of course, I ignored him. In 2015, he wanted to go back to the senate and wanted a situation where I will be asked to either allow him to be governor or choose the governor and allow him to go back to the senate. I called his bluff. I had a good understanding with the president, with the then National Chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu, so he hadn’t have access to those people and he became frustrated and he ganged up with members of the National Assembly to cause trouble in Enugu State.

“They had few friends with members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. That was when PDP was really having problem. You take decision in the state and one clown at the NWC will change it; cause confusion. It wasn’t easy for him. So, that was when that idea came up that I was going to the senate, but I didn’t buy any form; I didn’t do any of that. They floated that just to bring him back to his senses.

“So, he came to me and he pleaded and I gave it up, I told him it was not a do-or-die affair, but for him to go to the senate he must abandon his colleagues and immediately he did it, all the people he had planned with to cause trouble, that was how he was able to go back.”

Ex governor Sullivan Chime said it all in the interview above published on November 23, 2018 in the Sun Newspaper. Senator Ike Ekweremadu sees Enugu state as his political fortress. If it is not him, he will always gang up to cause crisis in the state.

As 2023 approaches, ndi Enugu must watch it. The zoning arrangement in the state favours Enugu East Senatorial Zone and all political structures in the state are already moving towards producing a governor from the zone.

Those against the zoning are mere detractors who always gang up against the state and cause confusion. Like in 2015, these detractors will later abandon their co travellers and settle for something else.

AIF Media.