Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy President of the Senate and Speaker ECOWAS Parliament, reminds one of Rt. Honourable Dr. Newt Gingrich, a former college professor, former Speaker of the US Congress and one time Republican Presidential aspirant in the United States. One essential thing these two men have in common is the intellectual content they have brought to their countries’ politics. Gingrich, the enunciator of the Social Contract with Americans along with Richard Armey is a consummate intellectual in American Politics, as Ekweremadu is in Nigeria.
Following in their footsteps, Ekweremadu recently, successfully defended his doctoral thesis for a PhD in Law. The Thesis by Ekweremadu, who once taught both Constitutional Law and Labour Law at the University of Nigeria Nsukka where he earlier obtained Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Law is titled “A Critical Appraisal of the Legal Framework, Theory and Practice of Fiscal Federalism in Nigeria”.
This is good news. Ekweremadu is bringing back that essential ingredient of politics, which appears to be in short supply in today’s democracy, and that is intellectual content. On both the floors of the Nigerian Senate and ECOWAS parliament, Ekweremadu makes his contributions by taking bearing from a well-researched and knowledgeable perspective, which greatly enriches debates and legislative functions of both bodies.
Statesmen and great leaders are merchants of hope as intellectual politicians are merchants of workable ideas. As genuine men of the future, they do not only understand the past but they are also fully in touch with the dynamics that forge the present. They also foresee the future. While the ordinary politicians worry about the next election, the fundamental preoccupation of intellectual politicians, generally statesmen, is the welfare of state and the welfare of the current and future generations.
The Ekweremadu example is clearly seen in his statecraft in the Nigerian Senate and the ECOWAS Parliament – the apex legislative arms of the Government of Nigeria and the ECOWAS Commission. Lawmaking requires well-reasoned deliberations for the laws so made to stand the test of time and serve the intended purpose. Though senators are allowed to hire consultants and have aides working with them, whose duty it is to help them perform effectively, there is no doubt that where the Senator is himself grounded, input, output and outcomes are better guaranteed.
Ekweremadu’s feat is not surprising. He has delivered over 21 public lectures/papers both nationally and internationally on the themes of democracy, good governance, regional integration, security, economy, security, etc. From his works, we can see that intellectual politicians tell us things we need to know: how politics and society work, what happened in our past, how to analyse issues, how to appreciate the task of building a just society, as he (Ekweremadu) has effectively done. He and some other intellectual senators have kept us in conversation with the great minds of our past like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Tafawa Balewa and the rest. Intellectual capacities of such rare politicians help to bring forth robust conversations and lend a hand to tap into the enduring wisdom of the past and provide a critical standpoint for assessing the limits of our current political assumptions.
In his “Republic,” Plato put forward the ideal of a state ruled by intellectuals who combined comprehensive theoretical knowledge with the practical capacity for applying it to concrete problems. Although some other thinkers prefer to distrust the value of intellectuals in politics, Ekweremadu has proved their assumptions wrong. He has shown that although all good politicians need not be intellectuals, they should live an intellectual life. He has become what intellectuals would wish for in a politician and what intellectual politician ought to be. He has shown what meaningful and crucial impact intellectuals can make, particularly in today’s rapidly changing times.
As one sees it through him, intellectuals are those who have diverse wisdom and foresight, who apply their intellect and forward-looking visions for the purpose of awakening society. They help to divert the masses from what is unwise and wrong toward what is righteous and the good. No wonder, then, that Vietnamese word for intellectual, “trí théc”, is a combination of “mind” and “awaken”.
There are three key factors in nurturing intellectuals: knowledge; ability and willingness to awaken society; and doing so for a noble cause or purpose. The lack of any one of these elements is inconsistent with the definition of an intellectual. From this perspective, it is evident that discussing the role of intellectuals is a discussion about the social responsibility of knowledgeable people.
Ekweremadu has shown that he finds a great deal of truth in Einstein’s words: “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” He has equally proved that a person with capabilities and knowledge bears this kind of responsibility and owes his or her world the benefits of their profound wisdom. He has further shown that intellectual politicians use their capacity to contribute to steering politics and society away from the negatively-impacting results that they foresee, not just for past misdirected efforts, but also for current and future inappropriate endeavours.
The preoccupation of Ekweremadu in Nigerian politics has been essentially this. He has equally amply demonstrated that good communication is vital if the intellectual politician is to succeed in effectively and convincingly conveying his or her vision for a better society. Building on universal and timeless values, intellectuals generally, not just the intellectual politician, also apply their knowledge to shape, and protect, social standards and values.
Generally too, he is aware that, like everyone else, he has his own limitations and therefore ever willing to remain open-minded. Therefore, together with the responsibility to awaken society, he also constantly aware of his own limitations, which may limit his understanding and cause harm to society. This explains why the distinguished Senator is constantly searching for knowledge and made out time to pursue a PhD in Law at the University of Abuja despite his tight schedule. This is now in addition to leadership certificates from Harvard and Oxford universities.
It is particularly interesting that while the individual who is leaving no stone unturned in the bid to replace Ekweremadu at the Senate is engrossed in chicken impeachment and petty politics, Ekweremadu remains deep and focused in his approach to politics. He is now more than a consummate lawmaker- he studied law, he taught law, he has been making law, and he has bagged the highest educational degree in law. What else? Perhaps, history will best remember him for the breaking of the jinx of constitution amendment in Nigeria, pulling through three historic constitutional amendments and on the verge of adding another.
I do not see how Enugu people, South-east, the PDP and the Jonathan presidency would sacrifice such an experienced and competent intellectual lawmaker for a greenhorn come 2015.
- Mefor, is Director, Centre for Applied Psychological Research, Abuja
