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.

Ikpeazu: ‘Bakin Zuwo’ Of The East

BY LEO SOBECHI

Okezie Ikpeazu image via The Guardian

UMUAHIA, ABIA (THE GUARDIAN)--Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu, has been trending on social media for some time now. The record shows that the governor, who until March 2014, was in charge of sanitation and urban planning in Abia, holds a doctorate in Biochemical Pharmacology from the University of Calabar.

But, before the doctorate, Ikpeazu graduated from the University of Maiduguri, where he studied Clinical Biochemistry in 1984. He was in love with Maiduguri because it was reported that he went back to the university for his Master of Science (M.Sc) degree in Biochemical Toxicology in 1990.

For the length of time he spent in Maiduguri, especially in his formative years, Ikpeazu qualifies to be called, Aboki na (my friend, in Hausa tongue), because apart from his days in UNICAL for his doctorate, and during his youth service programme at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), the North got the better of youth.

From the foregoing, it could be rightly said that the governor of Abia State is a learned man. He is not an itibolibo (numskull).

However, as he trended on various media platforms for the greater part of the last two months, the 57-year-old was made up as a reincarnation of a former Kano State governor, Aliyu Sabo Bakin Zuwo, who was born 30 years before Ikpeazu was born in 1964.

Although Zuwo’s roots could be traced to the Kanem Bornu Empire in the present day Borno State, he grew up in Kano. But, there is nothing to show that Ikpeazu’s similarity with Zuwo is based on the fact that both men have had much to do with Bornu State.

Those who knew Zuwo could attest to the fact that there is a slight facial resemblance between him and Ikpeazu. However, while Zuwo did not have any formal education until age 16 when he decided to help himself, Ikpeazu reached the apogee of academic work, having attained a doctorate.

Nonetheless, another striking resemblance between Zuwo and Ikpeazu is both men’s love for radio and television. It is on record that to defeat the charismatic Abubakar Rimi in the 1983 governorship election in Kano, Zuwo made effective use of the radio as a campaign tool.

On the part of Governor Ikpeazu, two spectacular video clips, which made the rounds as his name trended, were excerpts from his participation in two programmes on Channels Television.

One was when he featured on Seun Okinbaloye’s Politics Today, while the other was a Day Break interaction with Maupe Ogun-Yusuf.

In the conversation with Okinbaloye, when told that a lot of people have complained that his government has failed to deliver the goods in the last six years, especially in Aba, Governor Ikpeazu queried: “Who said Aba is not working? Today in Aba, you have Dominos, Chicken Republic, er er er Market Place (Supermarket). You have everything in Aba, you even have a cinema in Aba!”

Those who know Kano State from October 1, 1983, would remember how closely Ikpeazu sounded like the then Governor Zuwo, who listed Mirinda, Fanta and Coke as some of the mineral deposits in his state.

Maybe Ikpeazu is saving Abia State’s money in the Government House, just as Zuwo claimed when his administration was toppled by the military junta on December 31, 1983, when N3.4m was discovered in his lodge. That also came to mind when Ogun-Yusuf took Ikpeazu up on the issue of maternal care in Abia State.

Governor Ikpeazu stated, to the amusement of Nigerians, that his administration gives N500 to nursing mothers immediately after their safe delivery, in addition to backpacks, which contents he did not disclose.

Ever since his serial appearances on national television, most commentators have been wondering how Ikpeazu, with his doctorate degree, differs from Bakin Zuwo, who struggled in his adolescent years to acquire western education.

It should be noted that before his being drafted into politics by his benefactor, Chief Theodore. A. Orji, Ikpeazu lectured in some tertiary institutions. But, it is as if his stay in Maiduguri did not avail him the opportunity to know much about his state.

However, some Abia State indigenes insist that nobody should blame Ikpeazu, but the political circumstances that threw him up as an accidental leader. They alleged that the offices he has occupied in public service, that is, after leaving the classroom may have affected his comportment and governance style.

The Guardian learnt that Ikpeazu was local government chairman of Obingwa Local Council from 2007 through 2009, from where he went on to become General Manager, Abia State Passenger Integrated Manifest Scheme (ASPIMS) from 2010 to May 29, 2011.

Senator Orji perhaps knew that Ikpeazu would succeed him as governor upon the completion of his tenure. That perhaps explained why the former governor appointed Ikpeazu as Chairman, Governing Council of Abia State College of Health Technology. From there, he served as the first Deputy General Manager of the state Environmental Protection Agency, from May 5, 2013 to October 10, 2014.

While some supporters of Governor Ikpeazu still allege that former governor Orji and his allies do not allow Ikpeazu the freedom to exhibit his governance style, many worried indigenes of the state citizens insist that just as success does not demand an explanation, failure should not admit alibis.

Ikpeazu’s efforts at promoting made-in-Aba products helped him to win a second term in office, but Aba people, especially those from Oha Ngwa said they are troubled that their brother is yet to truly deliver the goods as governor.

Without talking about the backlog of pension and salary arrears, Ngwa people point to the governor’s failure to do the following roads in Aba as evidence of absentee leadership: Port Court Road, Obohia, Ohanku, Ngwa, Azikiwe, East By Ngwa and Faulks Roads.

As if the complaints of his people were not enough facts to contradict Ikpeazu’s offering on Channels Television, his former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the state, Ume Kalu (SAN) penned, what he titled, “State of Abia: Wake Up Call on Okezie Ikpeazu (Part 1).”

Part of the 13-page epistle read: “I have been under intense pressure to share my thoughts with you on the real and general public perception of the poor state of affairs in our state, and, possibly proffer solutions towards ameliorating the situation.

“I am aware that most of the sordid and unfavourable things trending in public discourse about our state do not get to your knowledge, as those whose duty it is to draw your attention to them will, for fear or inability to handle the backlash, keep that information away from you…

“Since I left office as Attorney – General of our state in May 2019, I have variously been confronted in both private and public, with the poor and pitiable state of affairs in our state. Attempts to put up some defence often fail as I come out of the exercise looking stupid due to want of justification for the parlous/pitiable state of affairs in our state.

“As one who had been in government before your emergence as Governor in May 2015, I can attest to the fact that you inherited a state that was in distress and dire need of emergency attention.

“Those who are objective and truthful know too well that you did not originate the prevalent rot, but accepted it gleefully, and, instead of halting the drift, you have sustained it. This in a nutshell is the true state of affairs in our state at the moment.

“The rain started to beat us torrentially somewhere within the eight (8) years of your immediate predecessor’s tenure. Each time I ponder over your reluctance and/or refusal to make the expected positive impact on the governance of our state.”

Apart from verbal reproofs, infrastructure developments in their two neighbouring states –Ebonyi and Rivers-continue to challenge Abians to ask, in the voice of Mr. Peter Obi: “Are we cursed or are we the cause?”

Governor Nyesom Wike, in what many considered as poetic irony, invited Ikpeazu to Port Harcourt to commission a portion of that strategic road that connects Rivers to Abia State.

Also, while explaining the cost of many flyover bridges he constructed in Ebonyi State, Governor Dave Umahi stated that it was fair enough to spend N1.2b on each compared to the humongous N4b that some states post as cost of never-ending projects of similar magnitude.

Legendary Igbo Ogene music exponent, the late Oliver De Coque, in one of his songs noted that it is that which a man desires that he asks God. So, for those who blame Ikpeazu for mentioning the siting of Domino Pizza and cinema as part of his government’s achievement, how would you know if those are his signature projects? After all, Abia State is God’s Own State, and everything is vanity upon vanity.

Politics Of Kalu’s Inconclusive Polls, Graft Prosecution And Incarceration

Orji Uzor Kalu

BY LEO SOBECHI

The recent ruling by Nigeria’s Supreme Court upturning the incarceration of Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, by Hon. Justice M. B. Idris of the Federal High Court, Abuja, underscores the country’s undulating national politics that began in 2015.

A quick rehash: With a lofty electioneering promise to change the way government business was carried out in Nigeria, notably fighting official corruption, defeating Boko Haram insurgents and diversifying the economy, the newly minted All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated erstwhile invincible political armada, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

What made the 2015 presidential poll very momentous was not only because APC fielded a serial presidential aspirant and former military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), but also that the PDP had as its standard-bearer, an incumbent in Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

While Nigerians looked forward to the promised change, despair quickly set in when the president found it hard to put together a federal cabinet of aides, even as the suspense left a debilitating impact on the economy.

In the absence of a federal cabinet, two huge national happenstances riled the citizenry: The man elected President of the 8th Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, was arraigned at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), for political reasons, but on the guise of some discrepancies in the Asset Declaration forms he filed 12 years prior when he served Kwara State as governor.

Secondly, the first election to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after its well-received outing in 2015 presidential poll threw up what has settled in Nigeria’s political lexicon as inconclusive elections.

Kalu’s defection politics/defective trial

NOT long after the 2015 loss of the presidential power by PDP, Kalu, who served Abia State as its governor from 1999 through 2007, started singing a dirge about opposition politics. He lamented what he called former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s reprisal against him for standing alongside other ‘progressives’ to defeat a tenure elongation plan devised by the former president’s insiders.

Signs that the former Abia State governor had resolved to jump ship to APC emerged when he sent his mother, Chief (Mrs.) Eunice Kalu, and brother, Mascot Kalu, to 40 Balantyre Street, where they were received by the then APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

That was also despite the fact of his incomplete metamorphosis from his Peoples Progressives Alliance (PPA), upon which he contested the 2015 Abia North Senatorial seat poll to PDP, whose presidential candidate he supported.

By the time the various election petitions and re-runs were concluded, Kalu announced his membership of APC at his ward in Igbere. Not long after his eventual voyage to the party in power than words started making the rounds in Umuahia and Abuja that the former governor was seeking shelter for case No: FHC/ABJ/CR/56/07, a corruption criminal charge filed in 2007 shortly after he left office.

Having joined the governing party and buoyed by the much sought-after federal might that is a huge fillip to politics in the Southeast, Kalu regaled Nigerians through the media with sad tales of how he lost his major investments in banking, shipping and aviation to the highhanded vendetta machinations from former President Obasanjo.

While he accused PDP of being peopled by ingrates, especially given the quantum of financial support he rendered to build the party, Kalu did not spare the umbrella socio-cultural organization of Igbo, Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo, stressing that everybody should bear his burden even as he claimed that he was made by northern political actors in business and commerce.

Yet, as the restless former governor continued to stand in the gap for APC and the presidency, the perception grew that he was sure to bluff his way out of the corruption trial, particularly after he was honoured in Daura, President Buhari’s hometown, with a traditional title. But, while the maverick continued his political exuberance, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) amended the charges against him, a developmental that stunned Kanu and his supporters.

Coming barely nine months to the 2019 general elections, for which he had expressed the intention to recontest Abia North Senatorial seat, observers claimed that the amended charges were proof that President Buhari’s anti-corruption battle was no respecter of persons.

Others, however, dismissed the development as part of the antics of EFCC to continue to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians, that the commission was not looking at graft cases through partisan binoculars.

As it turned out, the amended charges, which came after an adjourned sitting on May 11, 2018, brought the counts to 39, upon which the accused persons promptly filed no-case submissions and played up the air of suspense surrounding the former governor’s alleged N3.2 billion fraud alongside his former director of finance, Jones Udeogu and Slok Nigeria Limited.

Not long after the Federal High Court dismissed his no-case submission, Kalu traveled to Germany, where he was said to have undergone a surgical procedure for an undisclosed ailment. Although pictures of the embattled former governor in a hospital with a bandaged leg were circulated on social media platforms, it was widely speculated that the first accused person had escaped overseas pending Buhari’s loss of the 2019 presidential poll.

But putting a lie to the summations of conspiracy theorists, Kalu returned to Nigeria at a time posters announcing his presidential ambition adorned the entire stretch of Airport Road through Lugbe to Abuja city centre. As a political actor that craves headlines and controversies, Kalu made a song and dance of his denunciation of presidential aspiration, explaining that “President Buhari was doing well and deserves a second term” in office.

On June 26, 2018 the office of the President of Court of Appeal (PCA), Abuja, received an application from Kalu’s counsel, Gordy Uche, asking PCA that Justice Mohammed B. Idris, who had been elevated to the Court of Appeal, be allowed to conclude the trial of the criminal corruption case.

Titled, “Application for Hon. Justice M. B. Idris to conclude the part-heard trial in charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/56/07, Federal Republic of Nigeria vs. Orji Uzor Kalu & 2 others,” the counsel to Kalu stated: “We are counsel to the 1st defendant (Orji Uzor Kalu, the former governor of Abia State) in the above corruption criminal charge, currently pending at the FHC, Lagos and which was being handled by His Lordship, Hon. Justice M. B. Idris, who was last week sworn-in as a Justice of the Court of Appeal…

“However, the above charge was filed since the year 2007, about 11 years ago, and is now almost at its concluding stages after a protracted trial in which the Prosecution filed 7 additional Proofs of Evidence, fielded 19 witnesses and had closed its case. The defence has since filed their respective No-Case-Submissions, which would have been ruled upon by His Lordship save for his recent elevation to the Court of Appeal.

“We are therefore constrained to humbly request that Hon. Justice M. B. Idris JCA be allowed to conclude the trial of the part-heard corruption trial at the Federal High Court, Lagos.

“Our application is hinged on the provisions of Section 396 (7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, which provides that: “Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law to the contrary, a Judge of the High Court, who has been elevated to the Court of Appeal, shall have dispensation to continue to sit as a High Court Judge only for the purpose of concluding any part-heard criminal matter pending before him at the time of his elevation and shall conclude the same within a reasonable time; provided that this subsection shall not prevent him from assuming duty as a Justice of the Court of Appeal.””

From Senate to prison

WITHIN the period of the prolonged trial, Kalu stood election on three consecutive times for the Abia North Senatorial District, only to be elected on the third attempt after his defection to the governing party.

One of his rivals in the senatorial contest, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa of PDP, cried foul over the return of Kalu as the winner of the February 23, 2019, National Assembly, complaining that the APC candidate employed soldiers and INEC officials to swing the votes in his favour.

Although the National Assembly Election Petition sitting in Umuahia invalidated the senatorial contest and Kalu’s victory, the Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri upheld the election, thereby rendering the order for a re-run unnecessary.

Meanwhile, as he battled with the election dispute, Kalu schemed his way to emerge as Senate Majority Whip, after stepping aside from his contrived aspiration for the post of Deputy President of Senate.

But, not long after he won his case against the tribunal ruling, which nullified his election into the senate at the Appeal Court, the application by his counsel to have Justice Idris, conclude action on the 12-year old corruption trial received positive response.

On December 12, 2019, Kalu and his fellow respondent, Udeogu, were handed 12 and 10 years jail terms apiece, just as the court ordered the winding down of Slok group owned by the former governor.

Nullification of judgment

FIVE months after the Senate Majority Whip took up residence, first in Ikoyi and later at Kuje prison, the apex court declared his incarceration null and void, explaining that Justice Idris lost the jurisdiction to jail the former Abia State governor.

The apex court, however, ordered a retrial of the accused persons. No matter which way the retrial ends, whenever it takes off, public perception would harbour doubts about justice and the merit of the outcome.

It would be recalled that barely two weeks before the committal of the Senate Whip to prison, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, warned presiding judges of the nation’s courts of superior jurisdictions to ward against using technicalities to obfuscate justice delivery in the country.

The CJN, who spoke at the opening of 2019 All Nigeria’s judges’ conference of superior courts at the National Judicial Institute (NJI), regretted that reliance on technicalities in the dispensation of justice contributes to the delay of justice delivery.

Speaking on the theme of the conference, which was “Sustaining Democracy through Effective and Efficient Administration of Justice,” Justice Tanko stated: “In order to sustain public confidence in the judiciary, judges must continue to be proactive by not allowing technicalities to stand in the way of substantive justice.”

But against Friday, May 8, 2020, nullification of Kalu’s conviction and committal, it is open to conjecture whether the CJN’s position on technicalities received proper attention or was seen as a mere feel-good public relations message to the citizens.

In their unanimous judgment read by Justice Ejembi Eko, the seven-man panel of Justices ruled Justice Idris out of order, pointing out that the fiat he got from the PCA in line with the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) did not give him the constitutional enablement to descend from the court above to deliver judgment on a matter in an inferior court, having become a Justice of the Court of Appeal (JCA).

The ruling has thrown up a lot of legal issues, but the entire weight of the pros and cons, merits and demerits of the inconclusive prosecution echoes the politics of the governing APC, which promise of change continues to engage public debate. Did the desire to make a statement about the efficacy of the anti-corruption fight prompt the judiciary under CJN Tanko to rush the defective ruling given that the matter had endured three electoral cycles?

Was there back-channel consultation to grant some reprieve to the Senate Whip so as to push back on the growing perception that the former Abia State governor was imprisoned to disable the Southeast’s contention for the 2023 presidency?

The Secretary-General, Movement for National Restructuring (MNR), Mr. Fred Nzeako, said the bulk of the blame for the disjointed judicial process should go to the electorate in Nigeria, who he said elected low-quality federal legislators bereft of intellectual depth for balanced legislation.

Nzeako, who is a lawyer and administrator, declared that even if Kalu’s lawyers do not brag to be the masters of the law, they could brag to be the masters of its loopholes.

According to him: “Who then can be blamed for what the society considers a judgmental loss? Was it the fault of the National Assembly, which made the laws and the Acts? No; they were eager to cure a very bad situation where hitherto cases had dragged for decades, including this one that lasted for over 11 years.

“The members of NASS, in their wisdom, gave what they felt was their best. Does one give what he has not? No. They gave what they had, based on the limits of their knowledge and intellectual capacities. After all, the constitution provides that they needed only attempted School Certificate or its equivalent to be in the Senate and House of Representatives.

“Blame the electorate for electing apex legislators with doubtful competencies.”

--------------THE GUARDIAN