Last week I penned a tribute to former Vice President Dr. Alex Ekwueme who passed away last November and would be laid to rest tomorrow in Oko, Orumba Local Government Area of Anambra State. I did opine that those who stopped him in the tracks, on the road to the Presidency, are still on the scene and, in fact, hold the nation’s politics by the jugular. They still determine who gets what. I was on the verge of gathering materials for a well-deserved tribute to the late former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, last week, when news broke that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had fired a long letter to President Muhhamadu Buhari, wherein he told Buhari that he had come far short of the expectations of those who voted him into office. He told the President to perish the thought of presenting himself for election in 2019. The temptation was high for me to go for the breaking news, in the tradition of any typical reporter. More so, I had predicted here that Obasanjo was bound to fire his usual letter to the President, if the nation advanced in the same trajectory it was headed. I should have beaten my chest as befits a cheap prophet, who predicted the inevitable. Obasanjo’s letters should scare anyone to whom he addresses the missile of a missive. Such a letter was a precursor to the exit of former President Goodluck Jonathan, in spite of torrents of replies demonising the author. I cannot wager any bait on any predictions to this letter giving birth to another occupant of Aso Rock, but it should carry enough weight to rattle those in office now and elicit due changes and improvement for Buhari, who says he is in no hurry to do anything because his journey on the road of power has seen him on familiar paths. He has seen it all and thus is unfazed by the desires of people who nudge him to be on the fast lane. His experience nudges him to the opposite direction. When I saw the broad smiles on the faces of both men at the African Union Summit, it tended to depict nothing amiss between both retired soldiers. Anyone taken in by the smiles does not know that soldiers are like the camouflage they wear. Such smiles are deceptive, though Obasanjo says his letter is not personal. I am minded to return to my running tribute to Ekwueme. There is no compelling need to dwell on a letter that is now stale. To Ekwume, I shall return.
In my days of active journalism, I had just been appointed Editor of a national newspaper when death knocked at the door of one of Nigeria’s finest economists, Dr. Pius Okigbo, in year 2000. I decided to dedicate an entire edition to the man on the date of his burial. It was a mild or heavy risk for a newspaper whose content should be chameleonic in bearing the colour of breaking news. I stuck my neck out on the matter, willing to float or sink with my decision. A bold photograph of Dr. Okigbo became the sole occupant of the newspaper’s front page that Saturday morning and virtually all the pages had stories and tributes about the man. I had my heart in my mouth the next Monday morning, thinking I would be the butt of editorial reviews that day. No such thing happened, neither did I get any pat on the back.
However, when Chief Sam Mbakwe, former Governor of old Imo State, passed on in January 2004, my bosses told me to do for him as I did for Okigbo. That was a subtle commendation. I would have done a repeat for Ekwueme, if I were in the saddle of any newspaper for Friday, February 2, 2018, when he would be lowered in Oko, his hometown, Anambra state.
One of the outstanding tributes I published in that special edition for Okigbo was written by Dr. Alex Ekwueme. He penned a rather touching tribute to his friend and regretted that he would miss him sorely. Now, the roulette of transition, which awaits all mortals, came to Ekwueme on Sunday, November 19, 2017, in a London hospital. He was a prodigious man, full of ideas. He had degrees in four disciplines, namely architecture, history, politics and law. The six zones, which have since become accepted norm in Nigeria’s political structure and lexicon, was a product of Ekwueme’s fecund intellect. When he was Vice President in 1979 and was coasting home to the presidency after the tenure of his boss, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the military struck. Major-General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB), who was Chief of Army Staff at that time, visited Ekwueme in his official residence and was lavishly hosted by the Vice President, who had no inkling that the visit was a ploy to ensure he did not leave the house when the coup plotters came to arrest him in execution of the coup, which threw up General Muhammadu Buhari, as head of state on the last day of 1983. They did not deal well with Ekwueme, because they held his boss under house arrest and sent him to Kirikiri, only for the light of vindication to shine on the outstanding professional when the panel set up to investigate the regime gave a clean bill and put an un-precedented addendum to his matter when it said Ekwueme became poorer for venturing into politics. Such findings would be strange even for those who overthrew him and those on the scene today. That was the kind of man who the military cabal kept behind bars and still barred him from the plum job when he dared Sani Abacha and put together the group that metamorphosed into Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The cabal, which stopped him from succeeding Shagari, was alive and well to ferry Olusegun Obasanjo from prison and foist him on the nation, making Ekwueme lose the party primary in Jos, and thwarted his apparent move to return the democratic process from where they truncated it in 1983. That cabal has not finished with Nigeria, still dictating who mounts the saddle. It would seem they have ditched Buhari as they did in 1985, 18 months after he mounted the saddle as a soldier. Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, says the Federal Government has spent N1 billion on the late statesman but the South East burial committee says no help came their way from the centre. I understand a road is being fixed for that purpose. I do not think the government should lump the cost of doing something that ought to be routine as expenditure incurred for Ekwueme.
Ekwueme was akin to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who so badly wanted to preside over Nigeria but only came close. He joins the irrepressible Awo as one of the best presidents Nigeria never had. Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ewkueme, like Nnamdi Azikiwe, was a nationalist, never found in any party that had parochial sentiments. Some of his kinsmen held that against him, but Ekwueme always saw the big picture and held out the umbrella to shield a larger Nigeria. He has answered the final call and we now remember him for his good works. Good night, man of ideas. It is only fair to name something after him. His family has requested that the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, be named after him. He deserves no less.