Anytime I sit back to reflect on the level of greed in Senator Ekweremadu, I usually develop goose bumps. Ike Ekweremadu was the local government Chairman of Aninri; Ike Ekweremadu was the Secretary to Enugu State Government; Ike Ekweremadu was Chief of Staff to Enugu State Government; Ike Ekweremadu is about completing 20 years as a fifth term Senator of the Federal Republic. Ike Ekweremadu wants to be Governor of Enugu State for eight years.
Ike Ekweremadu wants and wants wants; there is simply no end to what Ike Ekeremadu wants. At present count, Ike Ekweremadu has spent over 30 years in political positions, and if, by any stretch of the imagination he manoeuvres his way into power in 2023 – God forbid! – it simply means that Ekweremadu will be netting in about 40 uninterrupted years or more in the corridors of power in a country of more than 200 million persons 60 percent of whom are youths.
How can one man be so greedy, especially when the sacrosanct rotation principle in our dear do not favour him in anyway? What political space does this greedy man leave for the youths to grow, and not his has done anything spectacular other than paid media hypes? But the time to stop him is here! I do not believe that man can retire man in politics or any endeavour for that matter, only Almighty God does, but if Ike Ekweremadu did not control his rapacious greedy, his current insensitive greedy trajectory cum adventure to govern Enugu against all natural forces in definitely going to ruin and rubbish his little achieved political standing.
Though from what we have seen overtime, greed has continued to becloud his sense of political reasoning and maturity; if not, how would anyone in his right senses ever contemplate running to be Deputy Senate President when he did against Sen. Omo-Agege. Obviously Senator Ike is at it again swimming against the tide. Some opinionated that it is the natural greediness of an Igbo man politician, but I think that is not correct. It is just the natural greediness of Ike Ekweremadu. Because we have seen great Igbo sons and daughters leave the scene very honourably when the ovation was loudest, as they say.
Here it always has to be Ekweremadu or nobody else. He will never see a good thing bypass him. He has often boasted that the politics of the South-East is in the bag for him. In the run up to 2015 election he beclouded His Excellency the former Governor Sullivan Chime, and practically reduced the soft-spoken Governor to an observer in the politics of the State, where he is supposed to be in charge. In the end Sullivan Chime buckled to Ekweremadu so that peace would reign, but that of course was because Ekweremadu was practically living in the then President Jonathan’s bedroom manipulating the gentleman and his entire household.
Ike Ekweremadu squandered all the opportunities he has had to make a mark among Igbo people. In the time of President Goodluck Jonathan Ekweremadu was the most powerful Igbo politician. He was the Deputy Senate President at a time when the Co-ordinating Minister for the economy was an Igbo woman; the Secretary to the Federal Government was an Igbo man; the Minister of Aviation was an Igbo woman, just name them. Politicians of Igbo stock were at the centre-stage in Abuja, with Ekweremadu as the leading force. Of course, Ekweremadu leveraged that golden opportunity to ingratiate himself only for personal interest!
He re-routed the money meant to construct the roads in the South-East, including Enugu-Port-Harcourt Express way, Enugu-Onitsha Express Way for his own personal comfort. It would have been bearable if, at least, he had re-channelled the funds for the good of the entire Aninri Local Government, where he comes from. But no! Not Ekweremadu! A myopic politician incapable of seeing beyond his nose. He appropriated the money meant for federal road networks in the South-East to build roads around his house and pocketed the rest.
Today, he has marshalled the money to stampede his way to power in the state; insensitive to the existing peaceful and equitable power rotation principle of our dear state. Today, the Igbo nation cuts a sorry picture in the politics of the centre because we fronted a visionless, missionless, pitiable, greedy, hypocritical man. More than a year before 2023 election, the fox is back, baring fangs. May God save our dear State from this ignoble fox! But our youths are waiting for the whistle; Ike will receive physically the lunch packed for him. Our people are wise now. We are waiting.
Joe Aloy writes from Nenwe, Aninri LGA
