From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Prince Eze Madumere is among the former deputy governors whose name rings a bell in the country. It is not because he served under a popular governor, Ananyo Rochas Okorocha, but because the regime was enmeshed in controversial circumstances, which ranged from his legal reclamation of his mandate after his impeachment to refusal to pay him allowances due to him still lingering till date.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, Madumere, the man who went through excruciating political travails, and built himself into a brand by becoming a management consultant, an administrator, and entrepreneur, spoke on a wide range of controversial issues.
He spoke on the Rivers and Kano emirate political crisis, the performance of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), his assessment of the President Bola Tinubu administration, and the hardship in the country, among many others.
What is your assessment of the Tinubu administration in managing the economy and the country generally one year after?
While I believe that the present economic situation in Nigeria is unfortunately at the lowest, the problem has been building up. The suffering is getting to the extreme as people are literarily living without knowing where the next meal will come from. However, the present situation is the cumulative effects of maladministration and economic mismanagement by the past governments. You will ask from which party, and I have to admit that my party, the leaders of my party, the APC are also involved. On the assessment of President Bola Tinubu, I would rather pray and urge Nigerians to also pray that the present situation and hardship don’t continue. All I ask for is just for Nigerians to give him more time and allow his reform to yield dividends.
As a former deputy governor, what will you advise the warring gladiators in Rivers State to do?
I would simply advise that the people of Rivers State must be put first because without the people, the opportunity of being a governor would not have arisen. Realising that we owe the people our stewardship, will make us stop individualizing governance. For the sake of the people, they can still bury their hatchet and let the people be the winners. The only point of regret and perhaps the source of concern to many is that the state has been distracted too much with the crisis between godfathers and godsons. Don’t forget that the former Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and the immediate governor of the state, Nyesom Wike belong to the same political family, but they did not see eye to eye for eight years. As I said earlier, it is the people of Rivers that are feeling the pangs of these endless crises in the state.
Has your party, the APC, done well under this administration to retain the presidential ticket beyond 2027?
Going by the present socio-political and economic realities, APC has not done well even though the ruling party has also done well in some areas of human endeavour. However, I think it will be too early to write off the party because the administration has not even gone half of its present tenure. My appeal is for us to be prayerful and hopeful. I also still feel that the current administration would have by now shown some glimpse of determination to improve the country in certain areas like the persistent insecurity in the country. It should give us some sense of concern that insecurity is escalating in almost every part of the country. Kidnapping and demand for ransoms have been on the spiral increase, the insurgents that the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari told Nigerians that it has reduced insecurity dramatically in the Northeast, for example, but it has been on the increase recently with the resumed bomb explosion in Borno State. The food shortage in the country is getting to a crisis level to the point of assuming a serious source of concern to many Nigerians. Foodstuff has since got out of the reach of the rich let alone the less privileged citizens. As I said earlier, the APC government has not done well in certain areas, especially in managing the country economically. However, I want to say that all hopes are not lost; particularly with the window the Federal Government opened for duty-free and tax-free importation of certain food items into the country. It could not have come at a better time than now with the former Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, telling Nigerians that there is no foodstuff in the silos across the country. I don’t, however, have any iota of doubt on whether the present administration still possesses the capacity to turn things around within so short a time. Arrangements and machinery are already in motion to redirect the ship. I just want to passionately appeal to Nigerians to exercise little patience.
APC has boasted that it will overrun the Southeast in 2027, how possible can this be?
There is a difference between political realities and mere notice-me noises to be heard for political patronage. We call that lips service. In today’s Nigeria, you win by performance and not by mere binding and casting claims. We have some real performers as governors in the Southeast. If you say we can achieve that by mere rigging that is understandable, but unfortunately unacceptable. Nigerians no longer care about parties, but individuals with track records and visible achievements.
The crisis in Kano is affecting the APC national, what do you advise your party chairman, Ganduje, to do?
What is really happening in Kano is all about political struggle for leadership. Alhaji Ganduje, my good friend and the national chairman of our great party, is fighting to preserve his legacy. The colouration of the crisis is taking another dimension because of the crisis in the Kano Emirates. Our party chairman was the architect of the emirate crisis that has now escalated into serious magnitude. In the perception of many, what he did to the Kano Emirates was an avoidable blunder. It has now degenerated into a mistake that will continue to linger for generations. What is happening in Kano is like a movie called Game of Thrones. My party chairman is not letting go and his former boss, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, among other stakeholders, felt wounded because of what they suffered under Ganduje. It is pretty not the best of time. If I should advise my party’s chairman, I will tell him the same thing I advise our brothers in Rivers State. Put the people first, know when to stop and when to make some concessions. Kwankwaso is very popular and loved in Kano. He is not that leader you confound to your wishes when the people are with him. My chairman is sagacious enough to know that it is dangerous to open fights on all fronts. We must also be circumspect of our actions because of the future. Power is transitory and you can’t hold on to it forever. Kano has a different kind of political culture. They can die fighting for what they believe in and we don’t pray that the state be reduced to a theatre of bloodshed. The gladiators must be careful. I am also aware that the drummers for the 2027 presidential elections are somewhere around the bush, beating the drums of war. But we must have to give peace a chance and people must have their way. That is democracy.
What is your take on the recent Supreme Court judgment on Local Government fund autonomy?
This sounds like a melodious tune in my ears. For the first time in a long time, the Supreme Court gave Nigerians something to cheer about. I am particularly happy about the ruling. Now the governors can be properly guided and more focused on their constitutional responsibilities, especially their fiscal responsibility. We have received the local government system. We have wonderful governors who have been up and doing, ensuring their local governments still live up to their responsibility. I must give them credit. The Supreme Court has done its part. The remaining fight is left for the people. I can see some governors pretending to want to conduct local government elections to put cronies in charge to continue the pillaging. I will advise that the people must rise to the occasion. Anyone who emerges as the chairman of a local government and fails to perform must be held accountable because he can no longer give Nigerians excuses. If they use your funds to play a game of stupidity and give you excuses of any sort, stone them and ensure that they go into exile with their entire family. That is the only way to checkmate them. Enough is enough. Another thing is that we must be able to separate Federal Government projects from those of states. Some governors have squandered all the state allocations and will readily point at federal projects as their achievements. We must say no to this. I commend the Justices of the Supreme Court for rising to the occasion to save the local government system in Nigeria. We must also commend the APC government led by President Tinubu for giving support towards achieving this feat in our political system.
You celebrated your birthday recently; how do you feel clocking 60 years?
Well, I am still in the morning. This year’s birthday is quite different because I lost my loving mother, the matriarch of Madumere royal family. She was finally laid to rest on June 28, 2024. You can see that we are still pulling ourselves together from that painful reality. However, I will never fail to thank the Lord Jesus Christ for His mercies and grace upon me and my family. I give Him all the glory.
You seem not to have expected her passage at the time it happened despite her age?
You can say that again. My Mama transited on February 20, 2024. I must tell you that it came as a rude shock because she was one of the healthiest people around even at 83. She only went for a routine check-up and minor fever. She relapsed and never returned. It is a lesson for all of us. People will stay in their closets and make stupid predictions; like where they will be in the next few years. It is even worse with the political class who forget easily that a little hiccup can end it all. Man must be humble. Man is too full of himself, and he arrogates God’s glory unto himself. We must beware because pride comes before fall. All the great men who passed through here have gone the way of all mortals. Some of them even saw their death before they passed on. Let us be humble. I never joked with my mother, and she looked 40 yet at the appointed time, she exited. What mattered most was that she was at peace with the Lord before the end.
How close were you to her before her transition?
Honestly, I was not close to my mother as an adolescent. This was so because I was always travelling with my itinerant father, HRH, Eze Henry Anoruo Madumere, the traditional ruler of Ezi Mbieri. That was why he had so much influence on me in terms of hard work, survival instinct, a sense of responsibility, and a high sense of community engagement in terms of development. However, it was much later after I had grown to become a family man; that she felt she would make up for all those absentee years. She would take her time to prepare food for me and care for everything about me and the family. That sense of void in my childhood, made up for all that. We were just too close. For a woman who bore seven children and saw all through, I mean she did well. You had a father who was out there providing for the family and she was here catering for everybody. I also had a second mother, my father’s second wife who had also passed on. Both worked together harmoniously to raise us. God, is this really happening to me? I lost two great amazons in my life.
What are you going to miss in your late mother, Ugoeze Marlinda Ulunma Madumere?
My mother was an epitome of submissiveness in marriage. The Bible says, wives submit to your husbands and in turn, it says husbands, love your wives just as Christ loves the Church. What does that mean? When a responsible person tells you not to go ahead with a certain thing, there must be a reason that may border on your security, and unity of the family, and temptation that might be catastrophic. It is only a man who loves and cherishes and is also protective of his wife who will be interested in what she does, where she goes, and reasoning out the implications or likely consequences. You know this security instinct is natural in men even in the animal kingdom because that is how God has made it. My mother understood that and showed submissiveness to the letter. Mind you at the end of the day, your man must come back to you, and only you and he will manage each other till God calls you. She lived a life of sacrifice. My mother was always ready to sacrifice anything for peace to rain. She led and sought peace; sacrifice for peace and for others to rise. That is the legacy of my mother. She never cared about gossip about her husband, but was determined to nurture her marriage. She stooped to conquer. I laugh at those who are blaming Chioma for settling down with David Adeleke.