The governor who had before now told his close associates that he was retiring from active politics after his eight years in office suddenly made a u-turn declaring his intention to go to the senate. The action is viewed in some quarters as being targeted at the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who had overnight turned a po­litical foe.
The governor also zoned the governorship po­sition to Enugu North Zone and at the same time declaring that all the members of the National As­sembly from the state who have served up to two tenures should step aside.
By the zoning Ekweremadu had been fore­closed from contesting the governorship position and at the same time stopped from returning to the senate. Thus, former Governor of old Anam­bra State Senator Jim Nwobodo and former Sen­ate President Ken Nnamani reportedly told the governor at a peace meeting in Abuja that it will not be fair to stop the vibrant senator from con­testing for governor and at the same time fore­closing his return to the senate.
Ekweremadu had challenged the governor’s pronouncements arguing that he lacks the pow­ers to take such unilateral decision without con­sulting major stakeholders of the party in the state. All efforts to reconcile the two leaders have so far failed setting the stage for one of the biggest clashes in the history of Enugu politics.
While not underrating the powers of the gov­ernor as the leader of the party in the state and the advantage of controlling the party machinery in the state it is worth highlighting what Governor Chime will be coming up against in the contest with Ekweremadu.
The deputy president of the senate has set a record which will be difficult to match and which no other legislator in the South East has ever at­tempted. He has touched the lives of his people through his Ikeoha foundation, he has provided affordable education to his people and above all he has transformed the entire Enugu West Zone which he represents with good roads, water and electricity.
Beyond his zone Ekweremadeu extended his scholarships, bursary and even infrastructural de­velopment to other zones of the state creating ini­tial fears that he was angling for the governorship position. His goodwill has thus become a threat to his political adversaries as we march towards the 2015 elections.
The first asphalted road and erosion control site from Nkwoagu to Uwani Amokwe in Udi Lo­cal Government Area home of Governor Chime was attracted by Ekweremadu in 2010. The solar plant and street light at Udi station, the exit water scheme project at Udi, Enugwu Obinagu road and erosion control site, Umuavulu Abor Erosion control project, Oji/Udi 33kv feeder, the construc­tion of classroom blocks with furniture and VIP toilet at Community High School, Amokwe , were done by Ekweremadu.
The construction and equipping of library cen­tre at Community High School, Ukana; supply of basic drugs to Udi Health Center; the Umuabi bye pass road, which is ongoing; the Enugu Umuabi water project; multi million Naira National Youth Development Center at Ngwo Asaa are all projects attracted by Senator Ekweremadu to the governors’ Udi Local Government alone.
Before he came on board, it was repotrted that there was no single kilometer of asphalt road in Aninri LGA but today, all major roads within Aninri and environ and other LGAs in Enugu West have either been asphalted or being asphalted. Among these roads is the hitherto dreaded N12 billion Nenwe-Oduma-Uburu Road project for which the people gave him a chieftaincy title.
Also, there was no water scheme in Enugu until the deputy senate president attracted the N12 billion Ivo multipurpose Dam Project, which will take water to every nook and cranny of Aninri/ Awgu and environ and service year-round agri­culture and power supply to Enugu.
Although water servicing Enugu city comes from Oji River, Oji River itself has no water scheme. The Senator attracted the multibillion naira Greater Oji-River Water Project to supply water to Oji River, Udi and environ. Feasibility studies have been concluded and it will soon be awarded.
The governor’s kinsmen themselves stirred the hornets’ nest when recently they adopted the senator as their candidate for the Enugu West senatorial position.
The people under the Umuneke Progressive Front, the premier socio-political body comprising all the communities in the Governor’s clan said Ekweremadu is the better candidate for the zone.
President of the group Hon. Emeka Aneke told newsmen in an interview that his people only ex­ercised their democratic right by endorsing the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu for Enugu West senatorial seat come 2015.
According to him, “the central issue here is about service delivery to the people by Enugu State Government under Sullivan Chime and the performance of Senator Ike Ekweremadu within the context of the hopes and expectations of the people of Udi Local Government Area and Enugu West Senatorial District.
“Let us address the issues of service delivery, good governance and social justice for the people without playing politics of bitterness, rancor and character assassination. But if denying the people their rights of electoral choices, free assembly and speech, is the purpose, and how they want to push their candidature through, then it is unfortu­nate because the masses will refuse to be intimi­dated or taken for a ride.
“The issue here is not about fraternity with Chime, but about social justice. And we are poised to subordinate these pretenses to demo­cratic imperatives in 2015.”
He noted that “Chime’s administration has completed 596.6 kilometers of roads since 2007, some with the support of international develop­ment agencies. Out of this, only 132.4 kilometers of roads were constructed or resurfaced in Enugu West Senatorial district while 464.2 km of roads were constructed at Enugu North and Enugu East senatorial districts.”
Through his Ikeoha Foundation Ekweremadu has established and operating 24 Adult Literacy Centres, providing basic education to over 5, 000 adult learners in his constituency. The Adult Liter­acy Programme is one of the cardinal approaches through which Ikeoha Foundation fulfills its mis­sion of Building People and Empowering Com­munities by reintegrating adult women and men who before now did not have the opportunity of formal education into mainstream social and po­litical activities of their communities by providing them the platform for formal education.
Also, the Ikeoha Foundation Scholarship/Bur­sary Scheme, has been designed as a lifeline, by way of cash and material awards to brilliant, well behaved indigent students in Enugu West Sena­torial Zone as well as Igboeze North and Enugu North LGAs, to enable them graduate in their cho­sen courses of study.
The Ikeoha Scholarship and Award has also gone a step higher in 2014 by commencing full scholarship, starting from 2012/2013 academic session, in addition to its annual bursary awards of N30, 000 each.
While some State Governments were offering their qualified students scholarship in the range of 60,000 each, Ikeoha Foundation awards deserv­ing students the whooping sum of N500, 000 each to help see them through in their educational pursuits.
A breakdown of the N22.350 million disbursed this year as scholarship and bursary grants to 525 students from the five LGAs that make up the Enugu West Senatorial District as well as Igboeze North and Enugu North LGAs, shows that 25 students got N500, 000 as Scholarship awards, while 83 students each from the five LGA’s in Enugu West Senatorial District as well as 80 stu­dents from Enugu North and Igboeze North got N30.000 each as bursary awards.
At the last count Ekweremadu has attracted 39 projects to Aninri local government, 36 proj­ects in Awgu, 21 in Ezeagu, 34 projects in Oji- River L.G.A, and 24 projects in the governor’s Udi council area. He further attracted 31 projects to the South East as a zone.
A breakdown of the projects which was re­cently made public was challenged from some quarters prompting an investigation into the au­thenticity of the claims.
For instance, an inquiry into the allegation that a library project in Ugbo, Awgu LGA was fake, showed that what was proposed for the commu­nity was a Library/ICT Centre project. However, the community was said to have preferred an ICT Centre during final consultations. This was reflect­ed in the revised edition of the booklet cataloguing Ekweremadu’s projects.
“You could only have alleged phantom project or fraud if the projects both ICT Centre and Li­brary project were listed as different items in the first version of the booklet”, Engr. Bethel Onyenyiri, Special Adviser on Projects to the Deputy Presi­dent of the Senate on Public Affairs stated.
“And if out of 168 projects, some detractors are contesting about 1%, which your investiga­tions will portray the true picture, it is left for the public to judge whether we have done well or not”, Onyenyiri added.
At Ugbo the projects found to have been at­tracted by Ekweremadu include as­phalt roads, rural electrification, PHCN Service Station, solar street lighting, Ugbo dam project and water scheme.
At Awene Olo -Mgbagbuowa (Ero­sion control/Road construction proj­ect) Ezeagu L.G.A it was discovered that contrary to claims by a report, the road leading to the present Chairman of Enugu State council of Traditional rulers H.R.H Igwe (Amb) Agubuzor was funded in 2013 and the contrac­tor, DODOCANAL ASSOCIATE LIMITED was working. The community also said they had since visited Ekwer­emadu to thank him.
It was also Ekweremadu who way back in August 2011 raised the alarm that the Niger Bridge was at the brink of collapse.
Senator Ekweremadu said this dur­ing a visit to the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja where he was received by the Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen; the Minister of State, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda and the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Tukur Ingawa.
Senator Ekweremadu who also called for the rehabilitation of roads in the zone reiterated that the Niger Bridge had become a great challenge to the people of the South-east and the entire Nigerians due to its strategic place in the nation’s life. He therefore stressed the need to, not only fix it immediately, but also to take steps to urgently get the second Niger Bridge in place as promised by the president during the electioneering campaign.
Furthermore the actualisation of the Enugu Airport dream has been described as a testimony of the qual­ity leadership, synergy, and legislative masterstroke on the part of Sena­tor Ekweremadu and the South East Caucus of the 6th National Assembly, NASS, which opened the request with a letter to President Yar’Adua signed by Senator Ekweremadu on behalf of the rest. Thus, the Caucus, with the Deputy President of Senate in the driver’s seat, began the legislative diplomatic rounds to the Villa to drive the dream. The meetings were fruitful from the outset as President Yar’Adua was said to be seriously touched over the absence of an international airport in the South East.
A first class traditional ruler from the Enugu North Zone Igwe Spencer Ug­woke had this to say about the Deputy president of the senate; “Yes, it is a fact. Senator Ike Ekweremadu has laid a very good foundation for others to em­ulate. He has not been to my palace. I learnt he has been to my community five or six times. He is constructing a road, a very big road. He is drilling a borehole in a village in my domain and he is from Enugu West doing such things in my domain. We need to clap for him because I have also a Senator who is not doing the same. He hasn’t done so for Enugu North, let alone go­ing outside the senatorial zone. I was reading newspaper yesterday that he is to construct a road in Igboeze North to Odoro, from Odoro to Kogi.
Have you finished the one in your lo­cal government where you come from?
“I praise Ekweremadu for that. In fact, I am looking for an opportunity to see him face to face as the scriptures say “show forth thy blessings, not only in your lips but in your lives. In fact, there is need for the community to show that what he is doing here is sincerely and earnestly appreciated.
Just as I mentioned Ekweremadu, people will say he is my man. But ev­erybody is my man. Go and see what Ekweremadu is doing in his zone. I tell you that I and my cabinet will be going there. I have not told him that I will be coming because I am equal to the task of doing that myself. I and my cabinet will go there and worship at the Angli­can Church he built. That is a legacy that will last forever. We are very proud of Ekweremadu. We are proud of what he is doing at the National Assembly.”
From the foregoing, coupled with his relevance to the presidency and better acceptance in the party at the national level it is evident that Ekweremadu will not be easily overrun no matter who is involved.
He rather appears to have an edge going into the primary having proved to be a better and more loyal party man than his opponent. Also while Chime is elitist in nature, Ekweremadu is a proven grassroots operator who can come down to meet the people at the base.
Ekweremadu must also have started earlier to prepare for the battle ahead reaching out and touching the lives of so many while the governor is just beginning to reach out to the people; Ekweremadu has been into it since 1997 when he founded the Ikeoha Foundation.
More so, while Chime has not done any State government project in Aninri LGA where Ekweremadu hails from, Ekweremadu has attracted over 22 de­velopment projects to Udi LGA, includ­ing the governor’s hometown.
Decrying what he described as the ‘perilous political times in Enugu,’ Ekweremadu recently remarked; “I know the time we have found our­selves in. We know all the intimidation and harassment going on, but I would like to assure you that as it is written in the book of Psalm, ‘a thousand will fall by your left and ten thousand at your right hand, but they will never come near you. Only with your eyes will you see the fall of the wicked.’ As I keep say­ing, in matters of right and wrong, good will never be neutral. So, God is with us in this journey.”