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The 12th day of the month of May is a special date in my calendar. On this day in 1962, my dear friend, elder brother, compatriot and legislator par excellence, the very distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu, CFR, was born in the village of Mpu, Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State, southeast Nigeria. A politician, lawyer, scholar and one of Nigeria’s foremost legislators of the Fourth Republic, Ekweremadu rose through the ranks of public service steadily, beginning in 1999 when he was appointed by the Enugu State governments as chief of staff and later secretary to the state government, before his first election into the Senate of the federal republic in 2003. He remained in the Senate for 20 years, having been re-elected a record five times and during this period Ekweremadu earned the distinction of being the longest serving deputy president of the Senate for 12 years, between 2007 and 2019.
However, not many people will remember to felicitate Senator Ekweremadu on the occasion of his 62nd birthday, as he is in a United Kingdom jail serving out a 10-year sentence after being convicted of human trafficking for organ harvesting under the country’s Modern-day Slavery Act. While many of his friends and well-wishers in the past may have been attracted by the successes of his powerful position in government, some others may have decided to play safe so as not to seem identifying with a convicted human trafficker and organ harvester. But for some of us, his friends, brothers and compatriots, we have chosen to stand with Ike Ekweremadu in good and bad times because of what we know about him. And what we know about him makes some of us to believe him innocent over the allegations laid against him by the British authorities.
Ekweremadu is a good man, a forthright patriot who abhors illegalities in whatever form as an apostle of rule of law and fidelity to constitutionalism. As a lawmaker, Ekweremadu is not only himself law-abiding but is also one of Nigeria’s most progressive and consequential legislations in the history of the Fourth Republic. His profound contributions to the development of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy through a series of amendments and quality legislations to strengthen its electoral processes sets him apart as the father of constitutionalism of Fourth Republic Nigeria. And thanks to his personal integrity and incorruptibility in the discharge of his legislative responsibilities, Ekweremadu is one legislator that has made sense out of the nonsense that has become regional and constituency intervention projects by members of the National Assembly.
As the longest-serving senator in the history of Enugu State, Ekweremadu’s Enugu West senatorial district is host to the highest concentration of regional and constituency projects in the entire Nigerian federation. This is because every kobo that was budgeted for the infrastructural development of his senatorial district did not go into the private pocket of Ekweremadu but into what it was meant for. A tour of Ekweremadu’s Enugu West district reveals several hundreds of kilometres of some of the best constructed road networks anywhere in Nigeria complete with bridges and culverts, in addition to provision of provision of water and electricity amenities. Ekweremadu’s Ikeoha Foundation runs one of the largest educational intervention programmes through the award of scholarship and bursary to thousands within and outside Enugu State in Nigeria.
It is this long-standing reputation for outstanding public service and love of man and country that makes it doubtful that Ekweremadu could be involved in the crime of human trafficking for organ harvesting, just as the facts and truth of the matter do not support this allegation. A man who intends to traffic a human being for the purpose of organ harvesting would have known better to avoid a country like the UK. And it is because of the fact that Ekweremadu had no such intention that he chose the UK as a place to care for his ailing daughter who needed organ donation to stay alive. In getting a donor for his daughter, Ekweremadu was careful to comply with all UK laws and regulations, beginning with full disclosure to the British High Commission in Nigeria, including the details of the donor and hospital where the procedure was to take place.
If Ekweremadu had criminal intentions, he would not have written to the UK High Commission in Nigeria seeking a medical visa for the donor; rather, he would have sought a tourist or educational visa to cover up his real intentions. The fact that the donor, who, by the way, was not a minor or a homeless orphan as he falsely claimed, was indeed admitted to the same hospital that Ekweremadu had indicated in his letter to the UK High Commission in Nigeria for follow-up tests after he was discharged as unsuitable is a clear indication of the transparent and honest nature of the matter. The donor’s appeal for asylum in the UK after the sentencing of Ekweremadu in court is a clear revelation of his intention to take advantage of the senator’s serious need for his ailing daughter to seek a better life overseas. It can be said that Nigeria happened to the donor and he in turn happened to Ekweremadu.
Knowing that he did nothing wrong and the fact that the conviction and sentencing was premised more on the subjective opinion of the presiding judge acting on an even more subjective modern slavery law that has never been tested since its enactment, Ekweremadu is in high spirits with a clear conscience. And, consistent with his public service antecedents, on the occasion of his 62nd birthday anniversary, Senator Ike Ekweremadu is not asking for help in his trying times but has asked his friends, associates and well-wishers to help galvanize support for the signing into the law the act establishing the Federal University of Agriculture, Mpu, Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Throughout his tenure in the Senate, Ekweremadu has fought hard to get the federal government to establish a university of agriculture in his Mpu community because of the natural agricultural endowments of the area. Aninri, which literally translates as the “Land of Food”, is indeed the food basket of the state and the presence of a university of agriculture will enhance the agricultural economy of the community. The act establishing the proposed university was first passed in the 7th Assembly but then President Goodluck Jonathan declined assent to the bill. Again the 9th Assembly has passed the bill but it is awaiting assent by President Muhammadu Buhari. It is the wish of Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu that the act establishing the University of Agriculture, Mpu, be signed into law in order to fulfil his lifelong dream for his beloved community.
