Enugu 2023: Problem With Zoning Is Ekweremadu’s Reason For Attacking It

Ike Ekweremadu

BY FELIX OGUEJIOFOR ABUGU

Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu has a right to aspire to be governor of Enugu State – no doubt about that. It is his inalienable democratic right to so aspire as it is, indeed, that of any other Nigerian or, for that matter, any Enugu State indigene. A legal and legislative heavyweight, the distinguished Senator knows, as we all do actually, that not even the National Assembly can legislate against any Nigerian aspiring to any political position in the land, zoning or not. So, there is ordinarily nothing wrong with his decision to throw his hat in the ring and run for governor of Enugu State come 2023.

What is wrong, in my view, is his attempt to discredit the existing leadership recruitment process in Enugu as a means of driving his own ambition. There is something inelegant about his disavowal of zoning, for instance. I think it is wrong for the distinguished senator to deploy a latter-day anti-zoning sentiment as a convenient excuse for his governorship aspiration, being that he comes from the ‘wrong part of town’ in the context of Enugu 2023.

Yes, there is zoning in Enugu State and it doesn’t matter when or how it started. That it was never formally agreed upon by Enugu stakeholders is neither here nor there. The distinguished Senator knows, perhaps better than anyone else, that not all agreements are formally written down, signed and sealed – some just exist by convention or practice. Even the British Constitution isn’t a formal document, come to think of it. The truth about Enugu in this political dispensation is that at the end of his two terms of eight years, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), as the first governor of the state in the Fourth Republic, handed over to Barrister Sullivan Chime who, in turn, handed over to Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi who, all things being equal, will complete his two terms by next year and also hand over to a successor, who will also be chosen through the same relay fashion that has come to define Enugu’s leadership recruitment process.

That is Enugu’s truth, irrespective of what former Governor Nnamani had in mind when he chose to hand over to Enugu West instead of Enugu North. Nor do I accept, , going by Prof. Ekweremadu’s argument, that the decision to hand over to Enugu North (Nsukka) by Chime in 2015 was dictated more by the spirit of equity and fairness (compassion, if you will) than by the imperative of zoning. No, I think the handover to Enugu North was simply inevitable, not least because it was also the right thing to do at that time – for the good of Enugu. Pray, would Chime have handed power back to an Enugu-East person or to a fellow Enugu-Westerner at the end of his eight years in office in 2015? I hold the view that while the immediate past handover to Enugu-North was pragmatic, even a noble act, it was no favour; it was politics of realism at play.

Now, enough of the stereotyping already! When Senator Ekweremadu argued that what Chime did in 2007 by handing over to Ugwuanyi was not based on zoning but was an action taken in the spirit of equity and fairness (read pity for Nsukka), was he still referring to the same Enugu North zone that had produced the first executive governor of Enugu State? If Nsukka had produced, way back in 1992, the first governor of the newly created Enugu State (when Abakaliki zone was still part of Enugu State), did the zone actually need the pity of the rest of Enugu to be able to produce, again, the governor of the state in 2015? Of course not. It means, in essence, that zoning or rotation of governorship in Enugu State didn’t start in 2015 when Chime handed over to Ugwuanyi; it started in 1999 with the combustive Nnamani who set the ball rolling in his own uncanny way, and Nsukka was a beneficiary of zoning already in full bloom in the Coal-City State in 2015.



Even then, it is as if Ekweremadu isn’t exactly sure how to frame his anti-zoning narrative. In one breath, he says zoning did not start in Enugu in 1999, so there has been no zoning in the State. In another he says going by zoning, Enugu-West (his zone) has produced only one governor (Chime) while East has produced Nwobodo, Onoh and Nnamani, while Enugu North (Nsukka) has produced Nwodo and now Ugwuanyi. Therefore, the next governor come next year should (must?) come from the West and must be micro-zoned to Greater Awgu. Now, is there zoning or no zoning?

It is contradictory still that while Ekweremadu discredits zoning on the basis of senatorial districts (which are constitutional creations), he is all for zoning on the basis of cultural zones (which do not exist in the eyes of the law). That is to say that the principle is the respected senator’s own creation, conveniently engineered to justify his quest for Enugu governorship at a time and in a season such a quest is unlikely to fly, for the simple reason that he comes from the ‘wrong part of town’ in the context of Enugu 2023.

It is a different matter altogether whether rotation has served Ndi Enugu well or not. Which is not even the argument Ekweremadu is advancing to make a case for his governorship! But as Christ was to say as evidence of His presence in the midst of the people (the blind see, the lame walk, etc), isn’t the fact that Enugu is peacefully progressive and no one is feeling cheated, enough evidence that zoning has served the state well?

The pain Ekweremadu feels at his Greater Awgu not having produced the governor of the state is understandable – one can even sympathise with him. But that is an internal problem of Enugu-West to resolve; it cannot be an Enugu State problem, come to think of it. If anything, it would, in point of fact, be highly impolitic, even foolish, for Enugu to jettison zoning by senatorial district basis which has served it well over time, for that based on linguistic sub-groups just to pander to the political interest of distinguished Senator Ekweremadu. In any case, and without meaning to play the devil’s advocate, I note that while Agbaja produced the governor for only eight years, Greater Awgu has been senator for 20 years and counting! And you ask, who is actually marginalizing whom in this dispensation – between Enugu-West and Greater Awgu?

I had actually expected Ike Ekweremadu to interrogate the Enugu zoning principle in relation to its ‘re-entry’ zone after the completion of the first cycle. For me, it would have been more principled for the distinguished Senator to argue that the second round of zoning could start from any senatorial zone. He might have had more people buy into his argument. He would still not have swayed the political establishment which, as the Igbo would say, has both the knife and the head of the chewing stick in matters like this, to tow his line of argument (Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is systems, due process man who will give back as he was given). But, it would have sounded more credible and less selfish.

But to disavow zoning by senatorial districts and settle for zoning by sub-linguistic groups (cultural zones), as Ekweremadu has advocated, speaks to an unhealthy promotion of self-interest in a polity that can do a lot more with altruism.

•Abugu, a veteran journalist and publisher, lives in Lagos

SOURCE: SUN NEWS

Abaribe, Ekweremadu: A Tale Of Two Revisionists

Enyinnaya Abaribe and Ike Ekweremadu 

BY LEO SOBECHI

ABUJA (THE GUARDIAN) -- The Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe’s recent declaration of interest to contest the 2023 gubernatorial ticket of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has sparked off concerns and discussions about the anticipated intensity of divisions in Southeast, especially in the buildup to the 2023 general elections.

Although what Abaribe did could be described as a political ambush on the outgoing incumbent, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, it exposed how far crisis of electoral ambitions would shape the politics of Southeast, particularly regarding the governorship seats.

Abaribe is not alone in the quest to transit from the Legislature to the Executive. He has a fitting ally in the immediate past Deputy President of Senate, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu. Together they parade unparalleled records as the oldest occupants of their senatorial seat from the Southeast.

However, just as it is not possible to attribute a possible connivance or resolve to unsettle the home front, the fact that the immediate past Deputy President of Senate, Ekweremadu, is also oiling his political machinery to seek the governorship ticket of People Democratic Party (PDP), makes the development very intriguing.

Both ranking federal lawmakers have incumbent PDP leaders as their state governors. But, this is just about the least factor that raises the red flag to their gubernatorial aspiration.

Rich Contrasts

Although Abaribe was elected for a first term in April 2007 and sworn in on May 29, 2007, he earned repeat electoral victories in 2011, 2015 and 2019. Having therefore been a constant face in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly for close to 12 years, it is obvious that 2023 should be his final passing out.

On his part, Ekweremadu, who considers himself as the lucky star of Enugu State politics, started featuring in the Red Chamber from May 29, 2003. And going by the four years’ period of each term, by 2023 the Mpu, Aninri Local Government Area would have occupied the same seat for 16 years.

In his alma mater, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he read law, admission is only given to those who are 16 years of age in addition to possessing other academic criteria. That could explain why the former Deputy Senate President wants to graduate from the Senate to the Lion Building, the seat of Enugu State Government, as governor.

If Ekweremadu’s desire to transit from the Legislature to the Executive follows the natural argument that change is constant, Abaribe’s ambition to be governor seems to be on the retrogressive instead of the progressive path. At the start of the fourth republic, Senator Abaribe was elected alongside current Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, for the governorship seat. But, two months to the end of the term, Abaribe jumped out of the boat in order to scuttle his captain’s attempt to drown him through impeachment.

The people of Abia State still recall the cat and mouse relationship between the deputy governor, Abaribe and Kalu, the governor. Sources disclosed that Abaribe survived countless impeachment plots, even as he was accused of being a dissembler and divisive character, which Kalu could not stomach.

However, unlike Abaribe, Ekweremadu was not a deputy governor, but enjoyed a cozy political closeness to former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, who appointed him, first as Chief of Staff and later, Secretary to the Enugu State Government. Yet, like Abaribe, Ekweremadu was also accused of dissembling and overzealousness.

Before Governor Nnamani propped him up to represent Enugu West Senatorial District in the Senate, the former DSP was alleged to have moved some members of the Enugu State Executive Council to Calabar, where they were administered with fetish oath to support him for the governorship. Being a power player and political tactician, Governor Nnamani decided that “we have to send Ike to Abuja, he has to give us chance to finish what we are doing for Enugu people.” In a cabinet reshuffle that trailed the muse, commissioners and appointees loyal to Ekweremadu were tactfully dropped.

Again, just as Abaribe moved over to All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to contest the 2003 governorship of Abia State, it was from the All Peoples Party (APP) that Governor Nnamani brought Ekweremadu to serve as his Chief of Staff.

The contrasts did not end there. Both Abaribe and Ekweremadu are known to have fought against the political interests of their former principals. Apart from contesting the governorship against Orji Uzor Kalu, who was seeking a second term in 2003, the Senate minority leader has continued on a parallel political path with the Senate Chief Whip.

For Ekweremadu, despite launching out political on the goodwill of Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, the former Deputy Senate President was said to have mobilized resources to stop Nnamani from accessing the Senate for a second term. As former political godsons, Ekweremadu and then incumbent Enugu State governor, Sullivan Chime, stonewalled the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011, Dr. Nnamani founded the Peoples for Democratic Change (PDC) on which platform he contested the Enugu East Senatorial election.

Apparently, in attempt to retire their former principal to political oblivion, Governor Chime and Ekweremadu propped up the Deputy Leader of the House of Representatives, Gilbert Nnaji against Senator Nnamani. Riding on the combined forces of power of incumbency and federal might, Senator Nnamani was denied a second senate seat to represent Enugu East.

The same scenario was repeated in 2015, but the masses revolted and protests filled the length and breadth of the senatorial district, including parts of the state capital.

Pained by the cycle of political wickedness against their principal, incumbent Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi ensured not only the return of Dr. Nnamani to PDP, but also ensured that the mischiefs of 2011 and 2015 were redressed by support the return of the Ebeano political godfather to the Senate.

Watchers of Enugu State politics say Governor Ugwuanyi employed an uncanny political strategy to thwart Ekweremadu’s plans to use Senator Gil Nnaji to propel his governorship ambition. With Senator Nnamani back in the Senate, as well as his rock-solid grassroots support, it would be seen how any PDP governorship candidate can win without the support of Enugu East.

Across the entire length and breadth of Enugu State, former governor Nnamani retains popular acclaim in addition to his charismatic mass appeal. It is said that by bringing Senator Chimaroke to his corner, Governor Ugwuanyi, showed that he possesses the political ‘Urim and Thumin’ of Enugu State politics, especially with his ecumenism style of leadership.

It is doubtful of if Governor Okezie Ikpeazu would support Abaribe’s governorship, because as the outgoing governor, the incumbent should follow the tradition of propping up his preferred successor for the PDP ticket. Talks about Governor Ikpeazu’s possible switch over to All Progressives Congress (APC) have been making the rounds in Abia State, but the governor has literally sworn that there is and there would be nothing like defecting.

In the absence of overt support for his governorship ambition therefore, it is left to be seen how Abaribe intends to snatch the PDP ticket from the incumbent governor, particularly given that both hail from the same council area.

If Abaribe is to consider an alternative platform, his best option would be the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), because talk of APC would be akin to asking the Maduforo Ngwa to count the teeth of crocodile with his fingers.

For Ekweremadu, the first hurdle to cross is the zoning arrangement in Enugu State, which the masses seem to be religiously attached to in the interest of peace and social harmony. However, supporters of the former Deputy Senate President contend that at no time did any political party or stakeholders sit down to draw a charter for power distribution in the state.

Going by the rotation of the governorship slot, Enugu East Senatorial District is the next in line to throw up the next governor. But, citing former Governor Chime’s observations during an interaction with journalists in 2018, Ekweremadu and his supporters insist that there is nothing like zoning. Chime had noted that it was for fairness and need to reduce tension that he supported Enugu North Senatorial District to produce his successor and not based on any zoning plan.

The recent Anambra State governorship election, which former Central Bank governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo won, reinforced the zoning debate in Southeast. Soludo, who hails from Anambra South Senatorial zone defeated 17 other candidates drawn from the two Senatorial zones of Anambra Central and South.

While proponents of zoning thumb their chest that the outcome of the election was more of a triumph of zoning, others maintain that Anambra voters chose the best candidate, arguing that it is only in the absence of a qualitative candidate from a favoured zone could produce a different result.

Abaribe and Ekweremadu are entitled to their democratic right to stand for election, but whether that right vitiates voters’ right to adopt an unwritten convention would be seen at the end of the ballot on March 6, 2023.

Legislative Stature

BOTH Abaribe and Ekweremadu stand tall as giants of Nigeria Senate. While the representative of Abia South Senatorial District emerged as the voice and conscience of the Senate, especially in the Eighth and Ninth plenaries, Ekweremadu’s election by his colleagues on three consecutive occasions as Deputy President of Senate is not a mean record.

By the time the 2023 governorship poll holds in Abia State, Senator Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe would be 68 years. The man he wants to succeed is not up to 60. Perhaps, Abaribe wants voters to determine which is easier between state governors retiring to the Senate for legislation or old Senators ascending to the executive seat of a state governor.

For Ekweremadu, he would be seeking the governorship ticket at 60 in a state where nobody above 55 had ever held sway. Although age is a matter of the mind, but the two giants of Nigeria Senate would have a lot of explaining to do to youth of their constituency why they should continue to dominate the public space instead of grooming others.

Both men have done their best to ventilate the yearnings and aspirations of their constituents, particularly on the much talked about Igbo position in the Nigeria project. Abaribe earned his stripes and scars from voicing opposition to human right abuses of secessionist agitators, including the members of Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The Senate Minority Leader was arrested and detained in 2018 briefly by the Department of State Services (DSS) for being an IPOB sympathizer, especially given his role in signing the bail bond of the IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

On the score of relationship with the secessionists, Ekweremadu has both sweet and sore tales to tell. Although he was part of the high level stakeholders support for the release of the IPOB from detention in 2017, IPOB activists in Germany swooped on him during his visit to Nuremberg for the Annual Cultural Festival and Convention of Ndigbo in Germany.

About four young men among those who attacked Ekweremadu in Germany were later apprehended and charged for the assault. Unlike Abaribe, whose recourse to verbal darts against opposition, the former DSP is said to be adept at bipartisan collaboration in championing Igbo causes.

For instance, it was gathered that at the onset of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, Ekweremadu decided to run again for the post of Deputy President of Senate following the failure of Buhari to appoint either Dr. Ogbonnia Onu or Dr. Chris Ngige as the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF).

Again, in 2019 Ekweremadu was said to have rebuffed overtures from the Governors’ Forum to allow Senator Ovie Augustine Omo-Agege to emerge his successor unopposed, especially given the withdrawal of Senator Francis Alimikhena. This time around, the former DSP resolved with his PDP colleagues that Omo-Agege must not be allowed to emerge unopposed after debasing the hallowed chamber in the Eighth Senate.

“It would have been sacrilegious to unanimously endorse the event of April 18, when armed hoodlums invaded the Senate to steal the menace, so it was not about winning or not winning for a fourth term as DSP,” a PDP source confided in The Guardian.

It was perhaps on account of his closeness to APC leaders that the impression stuck that the DSP was planning a move to the governing party for Enugu State governorship contest.

Despite their individual achievements in the Red Chamber, both Abaribe and Ekweremadu seem to be plotting their retirement from public office by swimming against the tide of public perception. Already, politicians across the political divides, especially with the main opposition PDP have begun to interrogate the fruitage of their long sojourn in the Senate for the people at the grassroots.

As the two Senators begin the journey towards liberalizing the politics of their respective states, it would be seen how far they can go to disrupt the lure of zoning and power of incumbency.

Sign Of Things To Come

PERHAPS what happened in Orba, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State on Friday December 31, 2021serves as a foretaste of the public perception about their ambition to be governor against the run of rotation. Leaders of Orba community, who were acting on the understanding that Ekweremadu should not be offered any platform to market himself, reprimanded a member of the community, Mr. Charles Mbah, for using his birthday as a campaign ground for the former DSP.

It was gathered that after fracas broke out earlier in the year following a football march sponsored by the former DSP, stakeholders of Enugu North Senatorial District resolved that no individual or group should invite Ekweremadu for any public function before the governorship primaries of PDP.

The leaders maintain that since Governor Ugwuanyi is a product of zoning, nobody should be supported to rubbish the power sharing arrangement in the state. They also contended that as the incumbent, their brother, Ugwuanyi, should be supported to guide the state on the path of peace and brotherhood in selecting the next governor.

The reprimand of Charles Mbah could be a potent sign that the masses in Southeast are high on zoning. As men of means and men, how Abaribe and Ekweremadu survives the people’s power would determine the strength of their conviction, particularly given the yearning of Southeast to produce President Buhari’s successor.

Ekweremadu On State Police

Ike Ekweremadu. Image: Twitter

BY GABRIEL AMALU

The flurry of meetings by governors of the southeast, south-south and northeast zones, to establish regional security outfits, akin to the south-west experiment, was predicted by this column. Last week, as the legislative assemblies in southwest states were simultaneously passing the security network bills, otherwise known as Amotekun, the governors of south-south met in Asaba, to plan a regional security initiative. Of note, the media projected the Amotekun laws as not authorising the bearing of arms by the security outfit.

Each state will subsequently apply to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to authorise its outfit to bear arms. Of course, by the provision of the Firearms Act, Cap F28, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, the IGP has powers to authorise the bearing of certain categories of arms, while the authority to bear more sophisticated firearms can only be granted by the president. So, the arms with which the various mutating security outfits will use to defend their states will depend on the discretionary powers of federal office holders, not law.

Well, Amotekun, according to knowledgeable insiders may also rely on traditional methods, like charms and magic, to defend and ward off armed bandits, and kidnappers. I look forward to when eminent office holders, visiting the states in the region, would ask the regular police to hand over their protection to these security outfits relying on charms and amulets. Well, in fairness to the promoters of the zonal security network, the outfit will also gather intelligence for the police and other security agencies.

But will the proposed state security outfits and the touted collaboration deal the needed heavy blow to the high level of insecurity across the states in the country? I doubt. While this column is not an authority in African mysticism, to gauge the efficiency of charms, amulets and magic; my father who worked with the correctional services, before fakes took over our everyday lives, (may God rest his beautiful soul) told me that such things were ineffective when government wants to enforce law and order.

Going forward, a more plausible answer to the grave challenges of insecurity trying to torpedo our dear country, should be a further amendment of the 1999 constitution, the Police Act, and the Firearms Act, to allow a shared policing power between the federating units and the central authority. Why state governors are excitedly working hard to convince the people they govern that oranges and apples are one and the same, instead of demanding for powers to buy apples, which they know is what is needed by their people, beguiles this column.

Perhaps, the art of governance includes playing the ostrich? Interestingly, the former deputy senate president, and the senator representing Enugu West, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has presented a bill seeking relevant amendments to enable the federating units – the states, share policing responsibility with the federal government. Except the governors are merely grandstanding about confronting the crisis facing them as chief security officers of their states, they should all latch on the Ekweremadu bill, to deal the challenge a heavy blow.

Of note, sections 214, 215 and 216, of the 1999 constitution (as mended), which provides on the Nigeria Police Force, is very jealous of the creation of another police force. Section 214, magisterially provides: “There shall be a Police Force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force, and subject to the provisions of this section no other police force shall be established for the federation or any other part thereof.”

To completely emasculate and embarrass the federating units, section 215(4) first provides: “subject to the provisions of this section, the governor of a state or such commissioner of the government of the state as he may authorise in that behalf, may give to the commissioner of police of that state such lawful directions with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public within the state as he may consider necessary, and the commissioner of police shall comply with these directions or cause them to be complied with.”

But in a proviso, the power seemingly donated by the constitution was desecrated. It says: “Provided that before carrying out any such direction under the foregoing provisions of this subsection the Commissioner of Police may request that the matter be referred to the President or such Minister of the Government of the federation as may be authorised in that behalf by the President for his directions.” Such a nebulous provision, can be relied upon by the commissioner of police, for instance, when a state government wakes him up, that a village is under attack by herdsmen.

To make this anomalous proviso secure and inviolable, subsection (5) provides: “The question whether any, and if so what, directions have been given under this section shall not be inquired into in any court.” So, while the establishment of an alternative police is unlawful, if the president and his IGP decides to make the governor of the state miserable with respect to use of the federal police in the state to maintain security of lives and property, the constitution provides them opportunity to lawfully do so.

To put concrete on the emasculation of the federating units to provide reasonable security by themselves, the Firearms Act seals their fate. Of the three categories of firearms, referred to in sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Act, the governor cannot authorise the licencing of any. Section 3, which deals with category of firearms in the schedule part l, authorises the president to issue licence at his discretion, while section 4 which deals with personal arms, listed in Part ll of the schedule.

It is with respect to the firearms listed in the Part lll of the schedule referred as muzzle loading guns, that the Commissioner of Police is expected to consult with the governor to issue licences. How the regional security outfits will use the muzzle loading guns to confront the bearers of AK-47, not to talk of the self-loading RPGs which has flooded our country is anybody’s guess. To compound the dire security situation, the ineffective security networks and absence of federal police in the remote villages across the country, makes the villages sitting ducks for the dare-devil criminals working to upend our country.

Mallam Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State acknowledged his helplessness some days ago, when 51 indigenes of his state where mercilessly massacred by bandits. While his apology is appreciated, uncharacteristically, he didn’t offer a solution to the menace. Perhaps, apologies will now replace the condolences we have been used to getting from ineffective state authorities. To change the paradigm, the bill sponsored by Senator Ekweremadu, makes a lot of sense.

Ekweremadu Urges Leaders To Honour Odumegwu Ojukwu By Restructuring Nigeria

Ike Ekweremadu. Image: Twitter

BY CHRISTIAN CHIME

ONITSHA: IGBARIAM, ANAMBRA STATE (THE GUARDIAN) -- Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has said that the greatest honour political leaders can accord the leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, is to build a united but restructured and just Nigeria, which he lived and died for.

Ekweremadu disclosed this yesterday in his opening remarks as chairman of the second Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Memorial Lecture at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Igbariam, Anambra State.

His words, “From the structural imbalances, which inescapably counts against the South East zone in particular in its voting power at the National Assembly, the distribution of national offices, revenue sharing, and other blessings of democracy such as infrastructure, to the defective federalism that has made it impossible for Ndigbo to fully harness their potential, Ndigbo have many grounds to be dissatisfied.

“This state of affairs has effectively reared two schools of thought in the South East region on the way forward. There are those, mostly the younger Igbo generation, who believe that the best way forward is total separation from the Nigerian state and the actualisation of a sovereign state of Biafra. This has resulted in agitations, which got to its crescendo in recent years.

“On the other hand is the school of thought, to which I belong, and which believes that Ndigbo can indeed blossom, actualise their potential and be happy in a restructured Nigerian state.”

The Enugu senator elaborated on this in his Position Paper entitled ‘Biafra: The Legal, Political, Economic, and Social Questions’, presented at the July 2017 meeting of the highest echelon of Igbo leadership at the height of the pro-Biafra agitations and military operations in the South East.

Ekweremadu added, “This position resonates with the thoughts of Ezeigbo Gburugburu, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, in the lecture entitled ‘Nigeria: The Truths that are Self-Evident’ he delivered on February 22, 1994 and was affirmed in the Awka Declaration where Ndigbo affirmed their commitment to a united, but restructured and just Nigeria.”On immortalising Ojukwu, he stressed: “Ikemba came ahead of his time, he lived ahead if his time, and he died ahead of his time because the laudable visions he longed for are yet to be realised.

“Therefore, our nation and her leaders owe it to the memory of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to strengthen Nigeria as a political entity where justice, peace, love, and unity reign; where national interest is supreme and where every Nigerian and every part thereof are free and able to actualise its legitimate dream unmolested and irrespective of religious, political and tribal affiliations and origin. This is indeed the greatest honour and tribute he can get from us.”