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Tag: Uche Chukwumerije

  • If a harbinger is one that pioneers or initiates a major change, then Victor Attah is the harbinger of ‘Doctrine of Necessity’

    Architect Victor Attah, revered nationalist and leader of thought has just turned eighty. Attah, a former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and former President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects is one man born into a wealthy home but who, like many a prince has looked beyond personal comfort to also seek the interest of the people.

    Attah has received many awards and chieftaincy titles over the years including being made the Fiwagboye of Egbaland. He is a member of several professional bodies and was a participant in the 2014 National Conference in Abuja.

    Above all this though, Attah is a promoter of Justice, Equity and Liberty.

    Dike Chukwumerije, poet and son of Late Senator Uche Chukwumerije said, “If there are laws they should set us free”. Sadly in this nation, some of those we elect to lead us make laws precisely for the opposite reason. Eight years ago, after Victor Attah had left office as Governor of Akwa Ibom State, a certain former Minister decided to run for Governorship of that state. Senator “J.J” Udoedehe’s legitimate ambition landed him straight into prison. The then Governor of the state made a law which was enacted and passed with lighting speed, giving the executive arm the power to detain certain individuals for up to fourteen days without trial.

    Senator Udoedehe knew he was the target of the law, but damning the consequences he went ahead with his campaign. To the chagrin and annoyance of the sitting Governor, Udoedehe was found to be “running things” even from his prison cell! Furious the incumbent then had him (Udoedehe) flown in chains and from Uyo to Lagos and finally to Abuja. The photographs of Senator ‘J.J’ in chains were splashed all over the media at the time. Senator ‘J.J’ was held, not even in the DSS holding cell but he was thrown into jail by the police, this time on purely trumped up charges. Victor Attah was never a man to sit back and wring his hands in despair. Attah swung into action immediately; he intimated a certain National Security Adviser on the matter, and a meeting was arranged with Nigeria’s Number One man in the Police Force.

    Attah called the then Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to release Udoedehe at once, insisting the man was innocent; was only being framed for political reasons. When this (the release) was not happening, Attah then demanded that he (Attah) be detained along with the innocent Udoedehe!

    The IGP at that point got up and bowed low before the men. He admitted that he knew the man in question was innocent; investigations had shown that he had been framed of the charges against him. But he admitted that he (IGP) was acting, in the Nigerian parlance, on “orders from above”.

    This incident is brought out here to reveal just how much of a lover of liberty and justice that the man Victor is. From state level to the national level, Attah’s position remains the same. At a certain time in the not too distant past of the nation’s history, Nigeria was faced with the national dilemma of an absentee president. Had the nation’s Number One Citizen been an army officer, at that time he would have been declared AWOL: Absent without Leave.

    Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was Nigeria’s (ailing) President at the time. President Yar’Adua suffered from a terminal condition, but this was kept top secret to all but a couple of close people. The Nigerian nation was definitely kept in the dark. But some illnesses are pretty difficult to conceal when at the centre stage, certainly nobody who was President could possibly hide all the symptoms. Therefore Nigerians knew he was quite ill, only that people did not know just how far gone he actually was.

    He suffered one of his crises again in November, 2009 and was immediately flown out to meet his regular doctor in Saudi Arabia. Nigerians were fed with a statement after the event that he had travelled to Saudi for the “Lesser Hajj”. This was in November, a fortuitous coincidence for the official untruths.

    The problem was, the Hajj later ended but long after, Yar’Adua was not forthcoming. Worse, he had left, as usual with no official communication of transmission of power to anyone. To absolutely concretize matters, President Yar’Adua was also incommunicado. Here is a sample of the oath of office of the President of the United State used here as an example because Nigerian practices the American Presidential System-

    “I _____ do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States”.

    Clearly President Yar’Adua was not in, on any of the counts. The man was simply too ill!

    Add so the country, which previously had come to a veritable standstill, began to literally roll backwards. Although Nigeria is said to be practicing a democracy, with separation of powers between all tiers of government; in reality the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria wields enormous powers while on seat, and Yar’Adua’s absence brought this truth to the fore like never before in Nigeria.

    Nigerians started asking serious questions and after all the bogus tape recordings of, and “official visits” to Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia the questions turned to demands for the person of a leader.

    Victor Attah dived straight into fray. He announced that, going by the constitution, in the absence of the President, the Vice President is to sit in, in acting capacity. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was the Vice President at the time-practically in name only. Even his wife had made a retort to reporters then that: wasn’t it only reading newspaper that you people sent him to the office to sit and do?

    Well, Patience Jonathan’s rhetorical question was in fact the sum of the job description of the Vice President, as applicable at the time!

    However, Attah’s proclamation became a livewire to the comatose country. Many other individuals and pressure groups started speaking up loud and hard after him. This writer is one of those people. Let it be on record that Architect Victor Attah was the first Nigerian of prominence to declare that the right thing to be done in line with the constitution was to make the Vice President, the Acting President.

  • Chukwumerije gets FUTO’s posthumous award

    Chukwumerije gets FUTO’s posthumous award

    …Okorocha, Tukur bag Doctorate Degree

    The late Senator Uche Chukwumerije will be conferred with a posthumous Doctorate Degree (Honoris Causa) during the 28th convocation of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) on Saturday.

    Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, and former PDP Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur will also be conferred with Doctor of Technology and Doctor of Management (Honoris Causa).

    Speaking at a pre-convocation press briefing, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Chigozie Asiabaka, disclosed that 24 students would graduate with First Class; 604, Second Class (Upper Division); 1381, Second Class (Lower division); 223, Third Class; and 11, Pass.

    Asiabaka expressed joy that the university had maintained a steady academic calendar in the last four years, and in the period, made appreciable progress.

    “In the last four and half years, the university has emphasized more on quality teaching and research which are critical aspects of our Quest for Excellence.

    “To buttress the success of the university in these core areas, the 2015 web ranking of Nigerian Universities conducted by Four International Colleges and Universities, an international higher education search engine and directory reviewing accredited Universities and Colleges in the world, placed FUTO 16 out of the 144 universities in the country.

    “Similarly, the Africa University and Higher Institution Ranking 2015 based on research publications and citations conducted by Journals Consortium ranked FUTO 71 in Africa”.

    end

  • Senate eulogises Chukwumerije, Zannah

    Senate eulogises Chukwumerije, Zannah

    The Senate conducted a solemn session on Wednesday to mark the demise of Senators Uche Chukwumerije and Ahmed Zannah.

    The upper chamber devoted the entire day to eulogise the late lawmakers as Senators took turns to extol their colleagues.

    Chukwumerije died on Sunday April 19, while Zannah passed away on May 16.

    Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, led the tribute with a motion entitled: “Demise of Senator Uche Chukwumerije and Senator Ahmed Zannah.”

    Senate President, David Mark, lamented that ‘this is not the best of time for us” with the death of two Senators in quick succession.

    Mark said, “All of us have unusual burden today because when you sit over a family and the family records so many deaths, you are pained for the unusual but we are consoled in the very usual statement that there is time to be born and there is time to die.

    “None of us, no matter what we are, no matter how good or how bad we think we are, nobody has any control about his or her birth or death.

    “When the time comes, Almighty God will call us. It is difficult for anyone to express his innermost feelings on the passage on to glory, of a nationalist per excellent that we all called Senator Comrade Uche Chukwumerije.

    “It is even harder to attempt to express an opinion in a single narrative. We can sit down here for a whole day to talk about Uche Chukwumerije.

    “He was an economist, an educationist and a journalist of repute. He didn’t leave anyone in doubt as to where he stood on a particular issue regardless of the nature of the issue. He stood firmly to be counted especially on issues concerning security and the welfare of the Nigerian people.

    “His unwavering commitment to the ideals of nation building was unparalleled. Chukwumerije, as all of you were aware, was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education.

    He was determined to improve the standard of education in this country. Truly, he was passionate about raising the standard of education in this country.”

    On Zannah, Mark described the late Borno Central Senator as a fine parliamentarian who was bold and courageous and spoke his mind on matters.

    He noted that it was obvious that Zannah worked conscientiously for his constituents that made them to re-elect him for a second term in the Senate.

    Mark said he believed that Zannah’s wish would have to fight for the eradication of Boko Haram in the Northeast.

     

  • Remembering Uche Chukwumerije

    Remembering Uche Chukwumerije

    Back in 1986, I served with Uche Chukwumerije and about a dozen other senior media  figures on the Publicity Advisory Committee for the National Population Census, at the instance of Tola Adeniyi, the commissioner for public affairs and communications at the National Population Commission.

    After general introductions at the Committee’s inauguration, Chukwumerije had walked  up to me and told me how much he admired my weekly column for The Guardian, and how he looked forward to each installment. I told him how I had treasured his pan-African newsmagazine Afriscope, and how I had served as its University of Lagos stringer and had been generously compensated for my effort.

    That encounter was the beginning of what went beyond mere acquaintanceship, though it would be claiming too much to call it a friendship.

    Shortly after he was named Secretary for Information in the Transitional Council, he came to my office at Rutam House one late afternoon, unannounced.  Preliminaries over, he told me he had come to seek my help and that of “my boys” in carrying out his duties as Secretary for Information.

    “Not so fast, Uche,” I said.  “You didn’t consult me before taking the job, and now you are asking me to help you make a success of it.  Tell me: Why did you accept the job?”

    Chukwumerije said he had agonised over the offer and had consulted with his comrades in the progressive community – he named the activist Baba Omojola specifically – and they had all advised him to accept the offer because if he did not, it might go to someone who could not bring to the office the ideas and ideals for which Chukwumerije stood.   Besides, they had told him that the best way to change the system was from within.

    “What if, on taking office, you find that the government is pursuing an agenda different from the one you had been appointed to execute?” I asked.

    “No way,” Chukwumerije said.   He had raised that very question with Babangida, and had made it abundantly clear that he would resign if he found that the government was pursuing a hidden agenda, he said.   Babangida had in turn assured him that he harboured no hidden agenda, and was resolutely committed to handing over to a democratically elected government on August 27, 1993.

    As proof of his earnestness, Chukwumerije said, Babangida had pulled out a drawer from his desk and reached for a copy of the Quran to swear by, but could find none.

    “How very convenient,” I said.  “You believe him?”

    “C’mon, Tunji, you are too far gone in your cynicism.  If you don’t believe him, you should at least believe me.”

    He assured me, as he said he had assured Babangida, that he would resign if he found that he was being used to pursue a scheme he had not bargained for.

    “That’s good enough for me, Uche.  What do you want of me?”

    “Call me to order, rebuke me publicly whenever you feel that I am straying from the ideals we share,” he said.

    “I will do better than that,” I told him. “I will remonstrate with you privately.  I will not go public unless you make private discussion impossible.”

    We sealed the deal with a handshake.  We rarely met thereafter, but kept in touch through his special assistant, Dr Dokun Bojuwade, since deceased.

    The Transitional Council, comprising many eminent Nigerians from a class and an era that military president Ibrahim Babangida had spent the previous eight years excoriating, was charged with supervising the last nine months of his political transition programme that had lost momentum and credibility.  He had manipulated the programme so often and in so many ways that it seemed to have become an end in itself, a journey to nowhere.

    Even as the programme muddled its way towards the June 1993 presidential election that was billed as its culmination, proxy groups established and financed by the military regime were staging rallies and employing every platform to urge Babangida to continue in office.  And Babangida himself was lending them every encouragement.

    It was in the context of this pervasive uncertainty in the weeks leading to the presidential election that I asked Bojuwade to tell Chukwumerije that I needed to see him, persuaded that he would be in a position to help resolve my doubts.

    I met him at his official residence in Ikoyi, Lagos, in the afternoon of Friday, June 4, 1993, seven days to the presidential election.  Dispensing with the usual preliminaries, I asked Chukwumerije pointedly whether the election would hold.

    He said he could not answer categorically, but that the indications were that there would be no election.  He said he was flying to Abuja the next day, Saturday, to return to Lagos the following Tuesday.  If I looked him up the day after, he would be in a position to tell me categorically whether the election would hold or not.

    Chukwumerije did not return to Lagos that Tuesday, and I never saw him again. That very day, the Abuja High Court, Justice Bassey Ikpeme presiding, ordered NEC Chairman Humphrey Nwosu and the Federal Government to appear the following day, June 8, to show why the presidential election scheduled for June 12 should hold.

    Two days later, on June 10, in the dead of night, Justice Ikpeme issued an injunction blocking the election. But this was not a blanket ban, for she added that NEC was free to ignore her order since, as the law stood, the court lacked jurisdiction in the matter.

    Against all odds, the election took place.  When it seemed clear that Bashorun MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party was headed for a landslide victory, Babangida hid behind a battery of suborned judges and revanchist shysters to annul it.

    Chukwumerije was not a party to the annulment.  He first learned of it, I gather, from a reporter who sought his reaction to it.  He had dismissed the question as an unseemly joke, until the reporter assured that he was in earnest.

    But whether he was party to it or not, I had expected Chukwumerije to resign from the Transitional Council, based on the discussions we had held some six months earlier.

    Not only did he not resign, he championed the annulment with messianic zeal, the kind of   fervor with which he had promoted the Biafran cause to stunning success and acclaim.  With each passing day, he came across more and more like a Stalinist, bearing little resemblance to the engaging and amiable Marxist Comrade gifted with a rich, sometimes deprecating sense of humour, penetrating insights, a dialectical imagination, and a capacity for friendship across Nigeria’s treacherous cleavages.

    He dredged up footage on the civil disturbances of the First Republic and on the Nigerian civil war to inflict on the public a psychosis of fear.

    Listening to broadcasts on Radio Nigeria or watching news and current affairs programmes

    of the Nigeria Television Authority then, you thought you had been transported back in time  to Albania and Radio Tirana in the days of Enver Hoxa.

    Here, to cite just one example, is the doctrine Chukwumerije enunciated in a meeting with proprietors, no doubt as a warning to the so-called Lagos-Ibadan axis, the critical posture of which he resented passionately:  “Publication that subverts the national interest (as defined by the regime) “removes the publisher from the realm of proprietary rights and places him in the terrain of treason”.

    In another context, he charged that some sections of the press were being suborned “to incite communal mistrust” and hinted that tough new measures were afoot to replace the extant laws that did not provide “adequate regulatory safeguards.”  The measures would surface later as Decree 43, a throwback to Tudor’s England.

    But that dark era does not and cannot define Uche Chukwumerije, who died last week, aged 75.  Nor can it define his place in Nigeria’s history. It was but an episode in an otherwise productive and inspiring life of public service.   Babangida’s silence at his passing is telling indeed, but it reflects more on the self-styled “evil genius” than on his former cabinet minister who had served him so dutifully.

    Chukwumerije gave Nigeria its first intellectually oriented pan-African newsmagazine.  He was a committed socialist activist, eloquent advocate for the downtrodden, and as a member of the Senate and chair of its Education Committee, a first-rate legislator.

     

    Hail and farewell.

     

    I drew liberally on my book, Diary of a Debacle, for this column.

  • Uche Chukwumerije and Atahiru Jega: honouring the departed and the living of the Nigerian left – complexly

    Uche Chukwumerije and Atahiru Jega: honouring the departed and the living of the Nigerian left – complexly

    I solemnly swear to it: just a few days before the news of his death came to me, I was thinking a lot about the late Senator Uche Chukwumerije. The reasons for this were both very specific and general. With regard to the specific reason, I was thinking of the late Senator in connection with the known and unknown ramifications of the defeat of the PDP as our country’s ruling party. Of the admittedly few intellectuals and progressives in the PDP, Chukwumerije was the only one who, to the very end, I resolutely refused to see as being “naturally PDP”. Indeed, since 1999 when the PDP came to power, anytime that I thought of Chukwumerije my mind went to something Lenin famously said about the British playwright, George Bernard Shaw: “a good man fallen among the Fabians!” Lenin considered Fabians and their form of socialism fake and delusionary while for Shaw he had a deep respect for the dramatist’s intellect and politics. On account of this analogy between Shaw among Fabians and Chukwumerije in the PDP, as I reflected on what more or less seems to me to be the historic end of the road for the defeated ruling party, I felt quite keenly that this was something that I would like to discuss with Chukwumerije – though I had not seen him or spoken with him in about forty years and without knowing in fact that at that precise moment he was either dying or had died.

    In this context, the news of his death startled and saddened me immensely. This sadness was made even sharper by the controversy that almost immediately erupted with the announcement of Chukwumerije’s passing. Very few of those writing about him cared for his decades as one of our country’s most prominent, brilliant and dedicated socialists and Pan Africanists. More importantly, almost no commentator tried to wrestle with the ambiguities, contradictions and imponderables of the connection between his decades as a passionate and influential voice of the Nigerian and African Left and his deep embroilment in the last stage of his life in the often rank and decadent bourgeois politics of the PDP. For me of course there is no question that this delicate or perhaps even explosive issue has to be engaged as we mourn his passing and honour his memory.

    It was my acceptance of this difficult task that led me to the recognition that we face the same kind of challenge as we honour Atahiru Jega for the heroic role that he played in the recent 2015 election cycle. This is because, as far as I am aware, as with the life circumstances of Chukwumerije, no one has raised the possibility of there being any connection between Jega’s years as a radical, leftist academic and both the missteps that nearly ruined the performance of his duties and obligations as INEC Chairman and the courageous steps that he took to peacefully resolve a near calamitous crisis for the nation’s political survival. It is this analogy, this comparison that explains the title of this piece: we must honour these two men, one living and one freshly departed, at a moment when a landmark election once again raises for us the specter of the bad faith and self-negation that attend all who move from radical and progressive politics to the extremely divisive, corrupt and unregenerate politics of the ruling political elites of our country. For tactical reasons, I shall deliberately approach this topic from very personal encounters with the living and the departed, Jega and Chukwumerije. First then, I turn to the late Senator.

    In all, Chukwumerije and I personally met only about three or four times. Moreover, these meetings all took place in the mid-1970s. Of course our relationship continued beyond the period of these personal meetings through the short pieces I wrote for his famous newsmagazine Afriscope. Of the encounters themselves, these took place through the agency of Kole Omotoso. Before my arrival at the University of Ibadan as a young lecturer in 1975, Kole had regularly paid visits to Chukwumerije and his family at Anthony Village on the Lagos Mainland. Kole had been a junior and slightly younger contemporary of Chukwumerije as an undergraduate of the University of Ibadan. Of course, the late Senator had graduated long before I arrived for my studies in 1968. But this did not prevent me from hearing inspiring stories of his radicalism and being greatly affected by the stories. And there was Afriscope, unquestionably the most influential and professionally best produced newsmagazine of the Left in Africa in the period. For these reasons, when Kole asked me one weekend to come along with him to meet Comrade Uche, I jumped at the opportunity. And that was how the encounters started.

    These occasional weekend visits that Kole and I made to what were the combined offices of Afriscope and the home of the Chukwumerijes were, in total, only about three or four times in number. Moreover, they took place almost forty years ago and eventually marked a hiatus in which between then and now when the Senator-Comrade is gone, we never personally met again. But our conversations, our interactions left a deep and lasting impact on me. The hospitableness of Chukwumerije himself, his wife and children was of the very essence of care and solicitude in the extremely cramped space of a home that was also the offices of an important newsmagazine. Kole and I would talk with Chukwumerije late into the night, only to resume our discussions the next morning after breakfast. This round of early morning discussions would typically last until we then had lunch in the early afternoon after which Kole and I would set out on our journey to back to Ibadan.

    I remember Chukwumerije very vividly from those conversations as a brilliant man, an extremely well read and knowledgeable intellectual and a passionately committed socialist and Pan Africanist. As a matter of fact, in matters of intellect and passion for the radical and progressive traditions of the Left in Africa and around the world, when I think of Chukwumerije, almost simultaneously I think of the late Omafume Onoge. This is because in their presence, in the keen perception of their deeply ingrained and extensively researched knowledge concerning revolutionary movements of the past and the present, of Africa and around the world, you could not but be infected with their resolve and their optimism. Intellectualism of a very high order, unpretentious but deep and wide in its commitment to liberation from all the forces of reaction, injustice and darkness in our country and Africa, this was what drew me so powerfully to the late Senator in those visits to his home and editorial offices in Lagos in the mid-1970s.

    Did Chukwumerije take his radical and dedicated leftist socialism into his passionate embrace of the Biafran cause during the civil war? I frankly don’t know. My guess is that he probably did, though in the end like all others on the Biafran side who were leftists, he was for the most part quite ineffective strictly speaking as a leftist because collective struggles around trauma and survival trumped ideology in the secessionist republic. This negative dialectic became worse for Chukwumerije and other Leftists in post civil-war Nigeria. This was because in almost every instance, comrades found out that the socialism of one man or of one woman could not but be hopelessly isolated and compromised within ruling class parties that were crassly based on the lowest common denominators of excessive self-enrichment, ethnic divisiveness and opportunistic capitulation to foreign domination of the country’s economy.

    Famously, Chukwumerije was militantly and even derisively against the June 12 mandate of M.K.O. Abiola; and he served in both the Shonekan interregnum and the Abacha administration though for very brief periods in both cases. To the end, he did deny that his opposition to Abiola was based on ethnic animosity. The reason that he gave happened to coincide with the reason that Fela Kuti, to the very end of his life, gave as his opposition to Abiola, this being that his ITT connections made him an agent of the imperialist domination of our continent. As for Chukwumerije’s support of the Shonekan and Abacha administrations, we might do well to remember that other prominent Leftists also lent their support and services to those regimes. The case of the late Sam Aluko comes to mind here with his imponderable claim that Abacha was the greatest Head of State that Nigeria ever had. A lone socialist or leftist surviving with his or her convictions uncompromised in the moral wilderness, the ideological wasteland of Nigeria’s ruling class parties? Not a single exemplar of this “survival” has been thrown up by our political history and Chukwumerije was no exception to this norm. We must mourn him and honor his memory with the burden of this bitter truism.

    Atahiru Jega was, symbolically and psychically almost consumed by this negative dialectic. I had met him and worked closely with him within the collective leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the early to mid-1980s. Like all other members of that collective, I had been greatly impressed by his brilliance, seriousness and dedication as a radical intellectual of the Left. Which is why after my initial surprise that Jonathan replaced Maurice Iwu with Jega, I came to the conclusion that Jonathan and the collective mind of the ruling party had probably chosen Jega based on their wily recognition that once leftist academics joined ruling class parties or took up positions of great authority and influence under the state, they consistently or perhaps even inevitably became tamed, domesticated. For by the time Jega was appointed INEC Chairman, he had moved from the ranks of the foot soldiers of ASUU to being one of the most highly respected Vice Chancellors in the Nigerian university system.

    Many of Jega’s missteps as INEC Chairman arose from this contradiction. I will identify only two in this discussion. One was his willingness to conduct elections with at least one-third of the electorate disenfranchised on the basis of deprivation of permanent voters’ cards. Jega’s rationalization of this decision is not unreasonable, but it is profoundly non-democratic and perhaps even counter-revolutionary. This was his explanation that in many of the gubernatorial elections before the presidential elections, only around 30% of the electorates had voted. The second great misstep pertains to Jega’s capitulation to the manipulation of the Service Chiefs, especially as this almost came to being repeated on March 28. In fact, it was precisely at that moment that Jega’s heroism emerged. For once he saw that Nigerians in their millions and the international community through very powerful spokespersons were against repetition of the postponement of the elections, Jega saw that his isolation was more apparent than real. In a literal sense he was still a lone voice in the gaggle of forces closing in on him and working for his downfall or failure. But in a symbolic sense, he recognized that the weight of the survival of the country rested on his composure under fire, his courage under the extreme provocation of desperate and ruthless nation-wreckers.

    I admit it. I have barely touched the full scope of this negative dialectic in which Chukwumerije and Jega, each standing for a departed and living comrade, conducted their affairs and engaged the challenges they confronted in the broken and destructive wilderness of Nigerian ruling class politics. But if I have achieved anything in this piece, I hope that this will be seen as having laid to rest the myth of the isolated leftist or socialist who believes that he or she remains consistent or even credible in his or her embodiment of the dreams and aspirations of a just and egalitarian social order in our country while cavorting with the looters, the wastrels, the nation-wreckers.

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Uche Chukwumerije (1939 – 2015)

    Uche Chukwumerije (1939 – 2015)

    •It is good that he somewhat redeemed his image dented by his role in the military era

    It is constructive to start from the beginning in order to roundly characterise Senator Uche Chukwumerije who died in Abuja on April 19, aged 75. He was approaching the end of a three-term presence in the country’s upper legislative chamber where he represented Abia North Senatorial District since 2003. It is significant that by the time he came to the end of his life, his activities as a democratically elected lawmaker provided a view of him different from the image of a power opportunist created by his role in an earlier military regime.

    A major instance of this apparent self-redefinition must be his association with the 2007 Movement in Senate, the group that acted as the arrowhead of the resistance to then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s alleged plot to remain in office beyond the constitutional two terms.

    As Minister of Information in the military administration headed by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and in the contrived interim national government of Ernest Shonekan in the 1990s, Chukwumerije earned a deserved portrayal as an anti-democratic figure. Specifically, he helped to deliver a telling blow against democracy by his unapologetic alignment with the military’s annulment of the country’s historic June 12, 1993, presidential election, in spite of its credibility.

    It may be that his visible participation in the democratic era restored in 1999 was his way of compensating for the past, but it is debatable whether it didn’t amount to doing too little too late to redeem his image. There is no doubt that Chukwumerije was demystified by his performance in an unelected administration that undemocratically blocked the manifestation of an elected government.

    However, to be fair, it could be said that Chukwumerije started well enough. This is a way of saying that he started out by being on the side of the people and the expression of popular will. When in the 1960s he became a member of the Socialist Workers and Farmers Party (SWAFP) led by Dr. Tunji Otegbeye, the link mirrored a socialist vision that possibly became blurred, considering the anti-people path he later promoted. It is noteworthy that he also joined the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) led by Aminu Kano in the Second Republic between 1979 and 1983, and functioned as its Publicity Secretary and then General Secretary.

    Chukwumerije’s role on the side of the breakaway Eastern Region during the Nigerian civil war demonstrated his deep Igbo roots, and between 1966 and 1970 he was Director, Biafra Directorate of Propaganda and Director, Biafra Ministry of Information. For a man who studied Economics at the University of Ibadan, it is a testimony to his communication know-how that he also later worked as information chief at the federal level.

    It is instructive that as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Education, a position he held until his death, Chukwumerije’s contribution to the democratic project was captured in striking tributes. The Senate President, David Mark, said in a statement: “He was a team player who brought meaning to hard work.  He was focused and determined to make positive difference.” Senate spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, added: “The Senate will surely miss his erudite contributions on the floor of the chamber and his painstaking approach to committee work.”

    It is useful to reflect on Chukwumerije’s trajectory as a Senator. After his first term on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform, he defected to the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) reportedly because he fell out of favour with the PDP leadership following his opposition to Obasanjo’s so-called Third Term Agenda. It is remarkable that he was reelected in 2007 despite the switch. His return to the PDP and his reelection in 2011 probably further reflected his personal attraction and the acceptance he enjoyed among his people.

  • Chukwumerije to be buried May 22

    Chukwumerije to be buried May 22

    Senator Uche Chukwumerije will be buried on May 22, his family has said.

    This is contained in a four paragraph letter Chukwumerije’s family wrote to the Senate entitled: “The passing away of Senator Uche Chukwumerije.”

    Senate President, David Mark, read the letter signed by Che Chidi Chukwumerije on the floor of the Senate.

    The letter reads, “With total submission to the will of God, I will like to use this opportunity to inform you Distinguished Senate President and all the members of this Distinguished Senate of the demise of your friend and colleague, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, the Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District in the 7th National Assembly.

    “He passed away on Sunday, 19th of April 2015 at the age of 76 after a gallant battle with lung cancer.

    “Senator Uche Chukwumerije was born in Ogoja in the present day Cross River State on the 11th of January 1939.

    “His was a life dedicated to public service. From his early days in the 1960 with the likes of the West African Pilot, the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation and the Daily Times right up to the time of his first election into the Senate in 2003, Senator Uche Chukwumerije has consistently played key roles in shaping the course and character of our beloved country.

    “A three time ranking Senator in the 4th Republic, a minister of the Federal Government in the 3rd Republic, the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples’ Redemption Party (PRP) in the 2nd Republic, the Biafran Director of Propaganda in the Civil War and an ardent socialist, activist and political commentator in the 1st Republic, Senator Uche Chukwumerije’s life and activities coincided with major movements in the Nigerian history.

    “Therefore, with gratitude to God for a rich and remarkable life, we the members of the family of the Distinguished Senator humbly invite this Distinguished Senate to join us in celebrating the life of this great Nigerian.”

    According to the burial arrangements released by the family, the Night of tribute will be on Wednesday, 20th of May 2015 at a venue to be announced in Abuja, Wake keep, Thursday 21st of May 2015 at the Chukwumerije Family Compound Ngodo -Isuochi, Abia State.

    Church service: Friday 22nd May 2015 at Wesley Cathedral Methodist Church – Ngodo Isuochi Abia State. Interment to follow immediately afterwards at Uche Chukwumerije’s Compound, Ngodo, Isuochi.

    Meanwhile, Mark has assured that the Senate would give the deceased Senator heroic burial.

  • Insurgency: Nigeria cannot afford another civil war – Chukwumerije

    The Senator representing Abia North Senatorial Zone, Uche Chukwumerije, has condemned the renewed attacks by Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast, warning that Nigeria cannot afford another civil war within the short space of time.

    He was reacting to Tuesday’s bomb attack in Maiduguri, Borno State, where about 35 people were reportedly killed.

    The senator, who also called for moderation among the political class as they strive for power in the next year’s general election, said that hurling of abuses on the nation’s leaders all in the attempt at getting power at all cost is capable of derailing the political process.

    The chairman Senate Committee on Education told journalists in Abuja that Tuesday’s attack was one too many and a sign that evil men are working tirelessly to truncate the 2015 general election.

    He said: “In Maiduguri earlier this week, two young girls in their prime, against their wishes were forced to detonate bombs that claimed lives of many Nigerians. Similar attacks have also been witnessed in the recent past, in a renewed attempt to frustrate the general election.

    “But more than ever, Nigerians across the regions are determined to take their destiny into their hands. No amount of intimidation by these agents of darkness can disunite Nigeria again. We fought a 30- month civil war and the imprints are still there. Nigerians are determined never to witness a civil war experience again.”

     

  • Senate urges Boko Haram to free Chibok girls

    Senate urges Boko Haram to free Chibok girls

    •Chukwumerije flays Defence Chief over comment

    The Senate pleaded yesterday with the Boko Haram sect to release the over 200 schoolgirls it abducted from Chibok, Borno State, about 40 days ago.

    Also yesterday, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Uche Chukwumerije, faulted a statement credited to the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, that the military had located the camps where the abducted Chibok girls were being held.

    But the Air Force chief reportedly said the location was a military secret.

    Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba, who spoke at plenary in Abuja, urged the abductors to release the girls in the spirit of the Children’s Day celebration.

    The senator drew the attention of his colleagues to the challenges confronting the Nigerian child.

    He said children would only become true resources and wealth, if they were well educated.

    Ndoma-Egba said: “Let me, on behalf of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, congratulate the children of Nigeria and the children of the world on this day, which is their day.

    “Children all over the world represent the wealth and resource of every nation. They can be a resource only if they are educated. Without education, the children, rather than being a resource will become a burden on the society.

    “It is for this reason I want to draw the attention of the Senate and the nation to the challenges being faced by our children in the Northeast.

    “May I use this opportunity to appeal to Boko Haram to make this day whole for us as a nation, to make this day whole for us as humanity, by releasing our children in their captivity?”

    Addressing reporters later, Chukwumerije condemned the assertion by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Mashal Alex Badeh, that the military had located the camps where the abducted girls were being held.

    The senator said it was puzzling for the Defence chief to disclose what the military considered a secret.

    He said: “I am very much elated by the news that the location of our girls is now known to the army. But, like the rest of the nation, especially observers, I am puzzled by one phrase, according to the military spokesman, that their location is a military secret.

    “…What puzzles me is simply this: why do you make public what you consider a military secret? As you are announcing the location or your discovery of the location of these girls, the news is being known to those holding them captive. You think they are going to stay there and wait for you until you come to locate the girls and take them away?

    “This puzzles me because we know that in all American military operations, you don’t hear a word about that until after their mission has been accomplished.

    “The next you will hear is that their mission has been accomplished. When the leader of Al Qaeda was dealt with, we know how it was done. Nobody even had a wind of what was going on until it was completed.

    “So, let us hope and pray that the news of the location of the girls is true, that the enemy is not sufficiently warned to move before our men would strike.

    “But to us, it is a wonder of wonders that what the military considers a secret is what it announced as a secret and wants us not to divulge the secret.”

    Also, the Senate considered yesterday a Bill seeking to establish the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Centre (NFIC) 2014.

    The NFIC, if established, will operate independently of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It is presently a unit under the EFCC.

    Most senators hailed the Bill. They said the centre is a requirement for a country fighting seriously to eliminate corruption.

    But some lawmakers kicked against the Bill. The said it would amount to duplicating EFCC’s duties.

    The lawmakers insisted that the Bill can only succeed, if the EFCC Act is repealed to transfer some of the financial intelligence functions to the new centre.

    The Bill was later stood down for further legislative work.

  • Senate to Boko Haram: Free abducted schoolgirls

    The Senate on Tuesday pleaded with the Boko Haram sect to release the over 200 school girls kidnapped from Chibok, Borno State, about 40 days ago.

    Also on Tuesday, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, wondered why the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, would say the military has discovered the camps where the abducted girls were being held only to describe it as a military secret.

    Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who spoke at plenary in Abuja, urged the abductors to release the girls in the spirit of the Children’s Day celebration.

    Ndoma-Egba also drew the Senate’s attention to the challenges confronting the Nigerian child of today.

    He said children can only become true resources and wealth if they are well educated.

    He said: “Let me on behalf of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, congratulate the children of Nigeria and the children of the world on this day which is their day.

    “Children all over the world represent the wealth and the resource of every nation. They can be resource only if they are educated. Without education, the children rather than being a resource will become a burden on the society.

    “It is for this reason that I also use this opportunity to draw the attention of the Senate and the nation to the challenges being faced by our children in the northeast zone of the country.

    “Let me use this opportunity to appeal to Boko Haram to make this day whole for us as a nation. To make this day whole for as humanity by releasing our children in their captivity.”