From the outset, I must declare my interest. I was not only a great admirer of the late former Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme (October 21, 1932 – November 19, 2017), I was also fortunate to be his devoted friend. To be associated with a man of such gravitas, learning and consequence was a tremendous honour. In fact, I estimate his friendship as an inexpressible pleasure and consolation for more than thirty years. Those fortunate to be close to Dr. Ekwueme would testify that he was a man possessed of undisputed, if quiet, brilliance. He was so at ease in his wealth of wisdom and rare knowledge that he was absolutely approachable, even self-effacing. A stubborn optimist and warm personality, he was deeply jovial and radiated a certain fellowship and bonhomie.

Never a man of rough edges or surly habits, Dr. Ekwueme held himself to such high ethical standards that he was faithful to his word and commitments, whether that commitment was made to his social peer or a subordinate. His signature traits included an infectious humility and unstinting clarity of expression.

Over the years of interacting with him, learning admirable lessons from him, I often reflected on the ease with which he turned friendship into a veritable gift. He was constant in his solicitude for his friends’ well being. Thanks in a large part to him, I came to realize the sheer beauty of friendship, often a relationship between two persons who do not share genes, yet have interests that intersect and entwine. Indeed, he taught me that few things in life are more prized than friendship, loyalty, love, and service. Epitomizing these qualities, he loved life completely and lived it intensely. His protean nature was revealed through his eclectic relationship with music. He loved Mozart, Bach and local music.

When Dr. Ekwueme made a promise, he kept it. He did so not only because he understood the meaning of responsibility, but also because he was a man of extraordinary ethical capital. He spent much of his life working selflessly to improve the lot of those dealt a harsh hand by life or circumstances. He carried out that impressive work through the Alex Ekwueme Foundation. I was elated when he invited me to serve as a director of the foundation. In that role I saw first hand the meaning and majesty of “quiet” philanthropy – the transformation of other people’s lives without drawing attention to oneself as the giver. Dr. Ekwueme was particularly sensitive to the pain of people consigned to the margins of society. His ability to understand the nature and scope of suffering, and to empathize with the downtrodden, was some of his most memorable attributes. Those qualities are bound to endure, reminding those who knew him – as well as those who will come to know about him – that he lived a life that mattered, a life that was significant, and a life that recognized that true greatness lay in striving to make a difference in his society.

Every enlightened person should hope to leave a mark, to try their best to make the world slightly better than they found it. Dr. Ekwueme fulfilled that ambition many times over. His legacy in politics, an arena where egos often trump dedication to service, is peerless. If democracy is to function, a high percentage of those who hold public office must be honest, honourable and courageous people. Their office and service should enrich society and advance its interest rather than enriching themselves. He sought to address injustice and to bring his vast intellectual acumen and ethical funds to bear on governance.

In 2002, I had the privilege of being the chief launcher at the presentation of his memoir titled From State House to Kirikiri. On the occasion, I enthusiastically declared, “unlike many, he did not go into politics in order to rig for himself an easy life. Instead, he set out to use the ameliorative powers of government to make a difference”. Those words bear echoing, for Dr. Ekwueme was an advertisement for the kind of noble-minded, visionary, and focused leader that our country sorely needs.

Many men and women aspire to greatness, yet few ever succeed in capturing the imagination and spirit of their times. The ones who do become truly unforgettable, and they achieve a kind of immortality. I have no doubt that Dr. Ekwueme has earned his place among the small pantheon of those who, despite huge odds, challenged their fellows not to settle for a mediocre nation, but to imagine and work towards a loftier one.

While it may be too soon to undertake a full assessment of Dr. Ekwueme’s legacy, it is not hasty but altogether proper to underscore the fact that the former VP has been widely lauded, in Nigeria and beyond, by numerous newspaper editorials as well as his colleagues in architecture, business, politics and law. The unanimity of the laudatory verdict offers us a shape of the judgement that history is bound to render.

May His Excellency, Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, GCON, rest in peace.

My most enduring personal memory of Alex Ekwueme was at his brother Laz Ekwueme’s 60th birthday in January 1996, which began appropriately with a performance at the University of Lagos auditorium, with Laz himself conducting his Chorale as part of the events. At the end of the performance, his brother, Dr. Alex Ekwueme made a personal request for a performance of Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” and he was obliged.What struck me was the effect of the music on the man – the intensity of his expression and absorption of the movements of the song. 

Schubert arranged “Ave Maria” as a movement of seven songs, taken from Walter Scott’s epic poem, “Lady of the Lake,” and the denouement is in that moment, when the character, Ellen, at the lead of the far-removed harpist, raises an invocatory prayer to the Virgin Mary, summoning her to help, as the protagonist goes off into battle against the king. 

Years later, the significance of that request made utter sense to me. Dr. Alex Ekwueme was at the promontory of his own epic battle with General Abacha, and “Ave Maria” was his own invocation to the virgin. 

I could associate this purely on the subjective whim of my own interpretation, but of all the things that have been said of Dr. Ekwueme in the deluge of epiphanic eulogies from many quarters, the most central have been an acknowledgement of his quiet dignity even faced with the kind of challenges that would normally set off less accomplished men, and the second is the affirmation of the consistent principle he brought to bear on public service. 

What has often not been noted in his obituaries is that Alex Ekwueme was of that generation of men inspired by the politics and philosophy of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who taught us that in our quest to make a great society and liberate our people from the clutches of poverty and ignorance, we must show ourselves as the first and perfect examples. 

Those who wish to lead must themselves be willing to serve, given that leadership is a sacred trust, a call to dispense of all other interests that negates the higher interest of the people. True leaders are the servants of their people. They are not the masters of their people. True leadership requires mental and spiritual preparation: those who wish to lead must explore the vast fields of human knowledge, and thus like Azikiwe, Ekwueme prepared himself intellectually, ranging in fields of human knowledge, from Architecture to Sociology, to Town planning, and to Law. He was basically, philosophically trained. In other words, he could interrogate, if not interpret Pythagoras, as he could comprehend the movements of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” or the lines of Enwonwu’s “Agbogho Mmo,” as well as understand the notions of Zoroaster, or even the subtler underlays of the Paulian dispatches. 

Dr. Ekwueme was therefore rooted, without ambiguity. He was as local as he was cosmopolitan. He came to the clear and inexorable understanding that there was no genetic difference between the poor of the North and the poor of the South, there was only a moral condition, and it required the transformation of the material conditions that should give each man or woman the dignity of their humanity. 

Dr. Ekwueme also clearly absorbed the Zikist idea that the individual who offers himself for public leadership under the norms of democracy, must be willing to apply the strategic patience of the Roman General Pontifex Maximus. Zik himself summed that up as the principle of “Suru-Lere” – the virtue of patience. The Igbo themselves had put it in their own inimitable philosophical frame: “Anu laa ta, echi wu nta” – if the game escapes today, tomorrow is another hunt. Such a philosophy priotizes the virtues of patience, tolerance, and compromise as the sum of political conduct. It therefore makes political action, under the democratic principle, a process rather than a zero-sum game. 

And these are, in sum, the very principles that guided Dr. Ekwueme’s political action, from when he joined the fray, first in the first republic as an NCNC candidate for the Eastern Regional House, and later in the second republic, when he became Vice-President of the Federation of Nigeria, under the elected government of the National Party of Nigeria, led by President Shehu Usman Shagari. Ekwueme wanted to be governor of the old Anambra state, and had been nominated, and confirmed NPN’s gubernatorial candidate for Anambra in 1979. 

I do personally recall this moment because I had just become very acutely alert to national politics in that moment, and the Nigerian papers, particularly the local Nigerian Statesman published in Owerri, were full of the doings of politics. Shagari had first offered the Vice-presidency to an Igbo woman, the first Nigerian to earn a degree from Harvard, who was a senior lecturer then at the Alvan Ikoku College of Education. She was quietly convinced to decline the offer. Two giants later loomed: Dr. K.O. Mbadiwe, and Dr. J.O.J Okezie. And these were, politically speaking, known quantities. Then Shagari pulled the surprise, and it has since come to some light, with the quiet counsel of Dr. Nwafor Orizu, and picked what was essentially a dark horse, a younger man, Dr. Ekwueme – who compared to the other two seemed bloodless, and wilting. 

Ekwueme had always presented the image of that groomed silence; the self-effacing, un-intrusive man, who did not have the theatre of his more boisterous brother, Laz, but who had often proved with the quiet force of his intellect and will, to be no less a force or quantity. His quiet efficiency; his organizational capacity, and his fierce sense of loyalty and obligation, have all been attested to, by those who have worked closely with him, and no less, by President Shagari himself, who could never have wished for a better lieutenant. 

Dr. Ekwueme’s record of public service stands perfectly in that adulation, by those who put him before the blind goddess of justice, who then compelled by the sheer evidence before her, led her servant at the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Justice Uwaifo to declare that Alex Ekwueme had no scintilla of corruption around him, in a government that had been roundly accused of corruption. Dr Alex Ekwueme, the honorable judge declared, is the only example of a man who entered government very wealthy, and left less wealthy than he was when he went into government in Nigeria. 

In other words, Ekwueme remains Nigeria’s moral beacon – that example of the distinguished and incorruptible public servant, who has continued to elude this nation since the locusts came to town. Alex Ekwueme’s moral courage came through when he stood up to General Abacha and his ploy to succeed himself with the formation of the G38 in 1997. Ekwueme led the G38 to say, “heck no!” and was ultimately prepared for a showdown. 

I should now confess, that I ran a number of couriers between Ben Obumselu and Bola Ige, from Lagos to Ibadan, in that triangle of action, and it was clear that a showdown was indeed in the offing with Ekwueme at the center of it against the military regime. Perhaps that was why they stopped him too, when it came to crunch time. 

I was in that stadium at Jos, reporting the PDP convention for the Newsweek Magazine, with Marcus Mabry late in 1998. We had been taken that night to see General Obasanjo where he was sequestered in the lap of luxury in Jos, holding court. It was very quickly clear to me, that Obasanjo who had just been released from prison was suffering from a post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and his responses to basic questions were incoherent. Later on, I was also taken by Professor Obumselu, whom I met at the Hills Station Hotel in Jos, to see Dr. Ekwueme. Obumselu was the Director of Planning and Operations for the Ekwueme Campaign, and was running the numbers for the campaign. There was a clear difference. The surroundings were different. Ekwueme was of course surrounded by Chinweoke Mbadinuju and Igwe Mbaukwu, but he was clear and articulate, and Marcus Mabry in spite of himself did say, “that’s your best chance in Nigeria.” But later that night, while we were hosted at the Jos home of General Lawrence Onoja, and in the company of Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim, who was a major Ekwueme backer, we got the news that a lot of money had gone round at about 2:00 a.m., spent by the key military backers of General Obasanjo. The rest is now history. In spite of the bright and articulate speech of Asiodu, or the moral significance of Alex Ekwueme, the PDP went to the dogs: they gave the party’s nomination under fraudulent conditions to Olusegun Obasanjo. And that, very clearly in my mind, sealed the fate of Nigeria, for this country was handed back to the locusts. 

The result is clear: violence, corruption, religious and ethnic tensions. Any nation or party that would choose an Obasanjo over an Alex Ekwueme was doomed to misery. Ekwueme was the cornerstone of Nigeria’s fourth republic, but he was that cornerstone that was ignored. And we are still paying for it.

ALEX Ekwueme, Nigeria’s venerable vice president from 1979 to 1983, gave up the ghost in a London hospital last November 19. It has taken me a whole two months to write a tribute in his memory because I have yet to reconcile myself fully to the reality of his departure. The relationship between us has been such that all those who know me, including those who do so only on the social media, would attest that I can brook insults to my person but not to Ekwueme.  I have been receiving condolence messages since his death, as though my biological father has just died.

Our relationship had a metaphysical touch. He died on November 19, 2017, exactly one year after my mother, whom I loved passionately, left this planet. He died at 85. My mother also died at 85. At my mother’s funeral on January 6, 2017, Ekwueme led us in a Catholic prayer for the dead, complete with some expressions in Latin, though he was Anglican. It was a prayer for the repose of the soul of the dead but also reminded us of our mortality. “Thou art dust”, as the priest, borrowing the words of the Bible, tells the Catholic faithful on Ash Wednesday to inaugurate the Lenten Season, “unto dust thou shall return”. In his memoirs, Bola Ige, another Anglican and the late old Oyo State governor who studied classics at the University College in Ibadan, recalled that he and Ekwueme participated very well in Catholic religious ceremonies in kirikiri Prison where they were held for years following the military coup of December 31, 1983, because of their knowledge of Latin. An architect and lawyer with degrees in sociology, history and town planning, Ekwueme was a quintessential Renaissance Man. His love of learning and civilized conduct knew no bounds.

Everyone knows that the former vice president was ever calm, reserved, taciturn and Socratic. In December, 1994, when Ekwueme was chairing the famous All Politicians Summit at Eko Hotel in Lagos, General Sani Abacha sent soldiers, led by a major who was his chief intelligence officer but now late, to disrupt the conference. As the soldiers, pretending to be thugs, started to beat up participants brutally, everyone ran helter-skelter. Only Ekwueme remained calm, watching the hullaballoo with philosophical equanimity. The dignified comportment must have frightened the soldiers who left him alone but went after Olu Falae and Arthur Nzeribe, among others.

Strangely, Ekwueme always displayed extravagance, if not exuberance, towards me. This display of affection was as inspiring as it was humbling. Towards the end of September, 2015, when I emerged from a private meeting with Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State in the governor’s dining room and met Ekwueme who was already seated in the governor’s living room preparatory to his participation in a public forum of Anambra State leaders, the elder statesman screamed repeatedly with child-like innocence on seeing me: “The one man riot squad!” It was a name he gave me when I joined his campaign to become Nigeria’s president in 1998. He almost temporarily ignored ex-Governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife as well as Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige as he began to lavish praise on me. Obiano could believe neither his eyes nor his ears.

The encounter is reminiscent of an incident in Jos, Plateau State, in January, 1999, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held its first elective national convention where the PDP chose Olusegun Obasanjo, rather than Ekwueme who practically founded the party and led it admirably, as its presidential flag bearer in the 1999 general election. Ekwueme was occupying one of the two rooms at Station Hotel reserved for Chinwoke Mbadinuju, then the Anambra state governor-elect, and sent for me for a confidential briefing. As I was leaving their suite, Mbadinuju called me out me and spoke to me in a whisper: “Ide (Ekwueme’s traditional sobriquet) gave an instruction that he would not see any person except you and Ochiora (Mrs Beatrice Ekwueme’s sobriquet) while he is working on his speech to the convention tomorrow. I understand you and I are from the same local government area. Ide has a very high opinion of you, so I want to know you better”. Mbadinuju, journalist, lawyer and former political science associate professor at the State University of New York, was Ekwueme’s special assistant until 1983.

I still remember my first close contact with Ekwueme. It was in December, 1993, at the VIP Lounge of Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos where Bart Nnaji, who had just finished serving for three months as the Minister of Science and Technology in the Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government, and I had gone to receive his family visiting from the United States for the Christmas holidays.  Ekwueme was travelling out of the country and I went to thank him rather casually for his recent robust statements on Nigeria’s future.

I was shocked that immediately I mentioned my name, he began to reel out my articles in the British press, including one on the modernization of NITEL’s operations and mentioned not only the number of telephone lines which had switched from analogue to digital but also the very issue of African Review of Business and Technology and even the pages. All the figures were correct! It was self-evident I was in the presence of a genius. Our discussion quickly moved to his recent political advocacy. As I made to join Nnaji and his family, Ekwueme spoke to me solemnly: “I would like your generation to know that if this country is not restructured, it will not know peace, let alone progress”.

The 1994/5 Constitutional Conference provided an excellent opportunity for Ekwueme to campaign vigorously for the country’s restructuring. Despite the intimidating excesses of some parochial elements in the conference and elsewhere, Ekwueme stuck to his gun that the country be broken into six geopolitical zones, that the presidency rotate among the zones, that a person be elected as president for only one term of five or six years, that each zone produce a vice president, that the derivation principle in national revenue be increased from 3% to 13%, and that the governorship rotate among the three senatorial zones in each state. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, recognizing that these proposals were inevitable for national cohesion and unity, persuaded northern hardliners like Buba Galadima to accept them. Only the recommendation for multi-vice presidency was rejected.

It has taken the death of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to dramatise to the Nigerian people Ekwueme’s foresight and wisdom in advocating six vice presidents, including one from the zone of the incumbent president who would complete the remainder of the tenure of the president should he or her die in office or be impeached or resign voluntarily. When President Yar’Adua died in 2010 and was succeeded by Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner, many northerners felt cheated because they believed a northerner should be in office for eight years, all the more so after Obasanjo had served eight years.  As things stand today, a very incompetent president would demand reelection as of right, otherwise the geopolitical zone where he comes from will feel shortchanged. I have in various contributions argued that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of Service, Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives can be considered as Vice Presidents for purposes of succession. The arrangement will help reduce cost and avoid multiplication of duties and power conflict.

It is regrettable that Afenifere leaders made the abandonment of the 1995 Constitution by the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime as a precondition for mainstream Yoruba participation in the 1998-9 transition to civil rule programme, dingeniously calling it a military product whereas the Abacha regime made no contribution to it. It is more appropriate to call it the Ekwueme Constitution because the defining features of the 1995 Constitution were the handiwork of the fallen former vice president. It is a supreme irony that the same Afenifere leaders who practically forced the Abubakar regime to bring back the 1979 Constitution with one or two changes have energetically been denouncing the current constitution as a military imposition.

Nigeria’s redesign is imperative. Those currently advocating restructuring are, however, marketing it poorly because they are presenting their case as an ethnic or sectional or religious agenda which naturally scares those on the other side of Nigeria’s primordial fault lines. They should learn from Ekwueme who laid out his vision as in the overriding national interest. He was a nationalist through and through.

My household and I are very proud of our association with the great man, one of Nigeria’s best ever. We will always honour his memory.

There is an exception to every rule. Two sages in history, Horace more than 2025 years ago strongly believed that nothing can endure the buffets of fate and time – not even the reputations of human beings and perhaps especially politicians.

Howe, after observing the deceptions, dishonesties and skullduggery of American politicians for over 160 years must have concluded that, not only in America, but all over the world, politicians will for ever be dishonest. The broad sweep of history favours both of them. 

Trawling the mountain of evidence which global and national history provide, it is difficult to disagree with Edward Gibbon, 1734-1794, that “History, is indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind” – mostly committed by political types. 

But just as one is about to accept the declarations of the wise men as absolute truth, a few noble characters turn up to remind us that God in his infinite wisdom and mercy sends forth a few individuals whose footprints on the sands of their time will be indelible for ever – even when the present generation of their people don’t appreciate the importance of the lessons they impart. 

Horace lived before our Lord, Jesus Christ, and could not have imagined that such a perfect specimen could walk the Earth whose stature time could not diminish but continuously expand to the end of time. Howe was a witness to the fact that Horace exaggerated; that there are certain elements in history that time cannot devalue. But, the last place, even he would have expected to find a real human being who will approach that lofty standard is Black Africa. He did not live long to know Nelson Mandela – whose generosity of spirit was most divine and universally acknowledged till today. Time will never diminish that stature. Indeed, his successors, ordinary politicians, continue to polish Mandela’s image. 

Did Nigeria miss out altogether in producing a leader comparable to Mandela? Certainly not; as long as we don’t assume that one has to become President to set a long lasting example for nobility in politics. To prove the point, permit me to go down some history of party politics in Nigeria. I will also touch on some of the leaders who shaped our past and present. Names like Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello and Awolowo readily come to mind. That is expected. 

My personal experience with Nigerian party politics is longer than most people realize. I have seen all sorts of characters since the age of seven, my father, an Ijebu man from Epe Local Government was madly in love with Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe. He would probably have considered it if the great Zik asked him to sacrifice one of his three sons. I was one of them. His best friend, Mr Etim, now I know an Efik man, from Calabar (but in those days, everyone from the Eastern Region was a kobokobo), was just as fanatic about Chief Obafemi Awolowo, an Ijebu man. 

One fateful day as the election for Mayor of Lagos was approaching my Dad gave me a bunch of posters with the picture of Zik and the symbol of the NCNC to go and paste all over Lagos Island. Mr Etim gave his son, Esua, another bunch of posters, with Awolowo and the Action Group party symbol to go and paste. Shortly after setting out, the two sons had a “reconciliation meeting”. Instead of both of us going all over Lagos Island, we divided the territory into two and each carried the two bunches of posters. Job done in half the time, we headed for the Race Course to play football. We returned to find our fathers drinking Palm Wine at Evans Street. It was totally politics without bitterness. 

It is difficult to pin-point when friendly political rivalry degenerate into “do-or-die” during the First Republic, but by 1963, arson, murder, pyromania have taken over the politics of the Western Region in what became known as the Wild Wild West. The first coup brought a more violent end to what was already shaping up as absolute descent into the Dark Ages. For thirteen long years Nigerians were subject to the arbitrary rule of armed men. 

The civilians returned in 1978-9 to form five political parties – NPN, UPN, NPP, GNPP and the PRP. The major surprise was the emergence of Dr Alex Ekwueme as the Vice Presidential candidate of the NPN. Even those of us who had kept close watch on politicians as they regrouped under various false names, despite the ban on politics, had to check and re-check our memory cards and we could still not find Ekwueme on the list of known politicians. Two questions immediately came up. Who is this man who came from literally nowhere and was ready to become Nigeria’s number two citizen? What were the qualities which recommended him to the biggest of five parties which had several political heavyweights to select from? 

Some of the answers were provided during the campaigns. The “Old boy” of Kings College, Lagos exhibited all the nobility that the institution drilled into him while in school. Not once during the campaigns did he raise his voice in anger and insult against anybody. He always was an issues person. Even after his party won twice, Alex Ekwueme never once lost his cool – irrespective of provocation. But above all, he was the first totally honest politician in high office I have known. Two examples will illustrate the point. 

First, once elected Vice President to Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979, Ekwueme voluntarily wound up his firm – Ekwueme Associates and Town Planners – in order to avoid charges of conflict of interests. It was probably a first time in Nigeria that an elected official would do so. 

The second example was a testimonial given in the absence of Ekwueme by late Dr Wahab Dosumu, the Minister for Housing under Shagari’s government. Dosumu who attended Baptist Academy on Lagos Island was a classmate to my senior brother. He was also the first person known to me to have received the ASPAU scholarship to study in the USA. Ekwueme and Dosumu might have met in Washington State. Because I was also an ASPAU scholar, Dosumu was very close to me during his years as Minister and later Senator. 

One day, “Egbon”, as I called Dosumu, and I were discussing corruption in government. I was broadly castigating all political office holders when he stopped me and with a very serious look on his face. 

“Dele, there is one man about whom you can’t say that.” 

“Who is that?” I asked totally disbelieving it. 

“Dr Alex Ekwueme, the former Vice President.” 

“Oh yeah? Where is the proof, Egbon?” 

Then he told me an incredible story. After six months in office, during which everybody else in top government or party position had made at least a request for contracts for themselves, their wives, mistresses, friends and traditional rulers, he noticed that the only official who had not made a request was the VP. So, Dosumu decided to surprise the boss. He packaged a very lucrative contract, headed for the VPs office, after booking an appointment. After the usual pleasantries he then dropped the envelope on the VPs’ table while mentioning that “there is a contract there for you Sir.” 

Instead of the broad smile of gratitude he expected, the VP’s face contorted in anger before the explosive words came. 

“Wahab is that why we are here in government? Is it because we can’t make money any other way? Have we been elected for this? ”Without opening the envelope he threw it back at the Minister and ushered him out. Egbon said he had never felt so small in his life. But, he kept watch to see if it was a ruse. Till the military kicked them out on December 31, 1983 he never heard of any instance of self-enrichment concerning Alex Ekwueme. That alone should have earned him a place in the pantheon of our noble leaders – which includes Aminu Kano, Ahmadu Bello, Professor Olikoye Ransome Kuti and Audu Bako. 

When Sani Abacha announced the return of the self-legalized armed gangs in Nigeria on New Year’s Eve, politicians were ordered to report to the nearest Police Station. President Shehu Shagari, who was tipped off a few hours before the broadcast, was already on the run in one of the Shagari Mercedes of the era (now lying in Abuja) together with two or three Peugeot 504s – one loaded with petrol for a long trip – possibly out of Nigeria. The convoy was eventually overtaken and Shagari landed under house arrest in a Government Guest House, well attended by stewards and his wives. 

Alex Ekwueme, too well-drilled at KC to obey constituted authority, meekly reported at the nearest police post and was immediately clamped into Kirikiri Maximum Prison by the Buhari/Idiagbon junta. Despite all the investigation which confirmed his innocence, he was to stay there until Buhari was divinely removed from office in 1985. 

Was his time wasted? The answer is “Yes” – if you think of the short span of history since 1983 till now. It must be “No” – if you consider what the Almighty has used this absolutely marvelous man to do for Nigeria while incarcerated unjustly. 

“Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best to discover virtue.” Francis Bacon, 1561-1626. VBQ p 4. 

Prisons anywhere are not the best places for fostering virtuous conduct. Nigeria’s penitentiaries invariably breed more hardened criminals. But, Ekwueme was not a criminal; he was a victim of a mindless military regime, which like a child given a hammer suddenly discovers that everything must be hammered. So what would be his fate? 

History will record that it was while in Kirikiri that Ekwueme’s immense leadership qualities began to show. He was not the only political office holder tossed into the can. He had company – Governors, Ministers, heads of Agencies etc. After the initial shocks of finding themselves where, only a few weeks before, they least expected, the VIP prisoners became a group irrespective of which of the five political parties to which they belonged. I know; because my eldest brother, who was Commissioner under Jakande, was first among them before he was transferred to another detention centre. 

Commissioners were considered small fry when there was “no room in the inn” for Ministers and Governors. Within weeks, everybody had accepted Ekwueme as the leader. Incidentally, it was not because he was the highest ranked prisoner; it was because he was the first to snap out of the depression which enveloped all of them and was the counselor to the rest. Misery might love company, but, it loves a comforter more. Forgetting his own problems, he undertook to help the others. None would ever forget it; even if they lived a thousand years. “The remission of pain is no small part of human happiness.” (Saul Bellow, VBQ p 180). Ekwueme went out of his way to make his colleagues as happy as possible. 

The result was the first tentative plans to form a broad-based, all-inclusive political party once they are sprung loose as expected when the draconic Buhari regime was kicked out. In prison, the town-planner, physical bridge builder had been transformed into a political bridge builder and it was only a matter of time before he would leave another indelible mark on the sands of time in Nigeria. 

Released from prison and barred from participating in General Babangida’s transition to civil rule, Ekwueme returned to his “alternative address” as Dr Muiz Banire says about those who can survive without political appointments. He must have been mildly amused when IBB announced the creation of two political parties. The Social Democratic Party, SDP and the National Republican Congress, NRC were probably the only political parties created by government anywhere until Abacha, a poor copy-cat, created five during his regime. 

Babangida’s house of cards collapsed on June 12, 1993 and the return to civil rule was postponed once again. 

Abacha forced his way into office and started by making the same promises IBB did about the armed forces not staying “a day longer than necessary” to return the country to civil rule. IBB was in office for eight years; Abacha would have remained longer than five years. But, the Almighty had other plans for Nigeria. Between the time he seized power and his sudden death in 1998, Abacha put the country through another National Constitutional Conference, NCC; established five government approved and funded political parties and was well on the way to being declared the sole Presidential candidate of all the parties when the curtail call came. 

It was during the darkest days of the Abacha administration that Ekwueme came forward to claim leadership of a small group of courageous men who did not run away into exile but stayed to confront the dictator. First, he actively participated in the 1994-5 NCC and made the lasting contribution of getting the six geo-political zones recognized as a basic part of our political structure. He also actively supported the brave push by another Southerner, Obong Victor Attah, representing Akwa Ibom State, to get the thirteen per cent derivation principle for all mineral producing states without offshore-onshore dichotomy entrenched in our laws. The Niger Delta has benefited immeasurably. 

The two were soon to join hands in another venture that, unknown to both of them, almost claimed their lives. While Abacha kept the cream of the Nigerian political society busy at what the media called “the Confab”, the dictator was quietly installing his hand-picked workers in the five political parties who ensured that only approved candidates won all the elections from ward level to the National Assembly. Alarmed and dismayed, Ekwueme swung into action. He gathered a small band of thirty three of the most courageous politicians Nigeria has ever produced to form what was later to be known as the G-34. Victor Attah was naturally one of them. Others included Abubakar Rimi and Balarabe Musa (former PRP), Bola Ige and Ayo Adebanjo (former UPN), Jerry Gana and Solomon Lar (former NPP), Adamu Ciroma and Sunday Awoniyi (former NPN) and one Dr. Attahiru Jega (remember him?). Nobody in Nigerian history before or after that has ever achieved the feat of getting so many political adversaries to come together to join hands to fight a common enemy – at the great risk of their lives – as Ekwueme did in 1998. 

Ekwueme and the rest of them might not know it, but, the late dictator had vowed to eliminate all of them once sworn in as the civilian President in October 1978. God had other plans. 

Two letters, each of which should rank in the test of courage, self-sacrifice and patriotism with Reverend (Dr) Martin Luther King Jnr’s WHY WE CAN’T WAIT written to white Americans in the 1960s on behalf of all African-Americans set the ball rolling. 

The first was signed by Solomon D Lar and Co. It was titled WE REJECT SELF-SUCCESSION.  The second penned by Attahiru and CO was even more blunt. It was titled VACATE POWER. In 1998 that was akin to a bunch of rats telling a fat and hungry cat to get lost. Insiders in Aso Rock reported that the man merely smiled. People who were at death’s door threatening the executioner was a joke. Why, he could even have them rounded up and charged with planning a coup. But, he would wait. Their end will serve as the opening shot for his rule as civilian President. Abacha died a day before the elected members of the National Assembly were to meet and declare him the sole candidate at a meeting convened by Senator Arthur Nzeribe. 

The new Head of State announced a new transition to civil rule programme. Permission was given for politicians to form political parties. Not surprising, the G-34 formed the core of the first party in 1978. Headed by Dr Alex Ekwueme, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, included all the names mentioned so far and more. It was the first time an Igbo man would start a truly national political party. And it became the biggest in Africa. Ekwueme was its first Chairman and was well on the way to becoming its first presidential candidate. But, while General Abubakar might have meant it when he promised Nigerians a free and fair election in 1999, some of his bosses in retirement had different ideas. The election might be free but certainly not fair. To them Ekwueme, for a lot of reasons, was unacceptable. The major reason being his reputation from 1979 to 1983 as a honest politician. 

So, a plot was hatched by four Generals, three retired and Abubakar to impose a candidate on the PDP. Applying a combination of fraud and thinly disguised force, they got the party to accept Obasanjo as their Presidential flag-bearer. Obasanjo was unqualified in every way possible to contest that election. His nomination violated the party’s constitution and he was not even fully pardoned for his alleged coup attempt until after the elections. Ekwueme could have gone to court and challenged OBJ’s selection but he did not. For whatever reason, his loss of the nomination was the beginning of the end of the PDP. 

For me, the sale of the PDP to Obasanjo and the military was the turning point. After Obasanjo, fresh from jail and almost destitute donated N220 million to the party, with a first installment of N130 million, I published an article in SUNDAY VANGUARD on February 21, 1999 titled: TO MY BROTHER ALEX EKWUEME. The concluding part of that lengthy article is reproduced below.  “But, as events unfolded, as N130 million was first donated by faceless manipulators and billions more weighed in on the side of continuation of military rule by other means, it became increasingly clear that the party you once called “my baby” would be snatched from you by powerful groups hell-bent on ensuring that the clean break with the past does not occur.” 

Ekwueme must have read it, but, it is doubtful he believed the prediction. He was still riding high. At any rate, it is a fact that “In times of victory, prophets are unnecessary distractions.” (Trevor Roper). The PDP won the presidency and he sat back to see all the ideals spelt out in the party’s constitution implemented. He waited for ever. Inexorably, the vultures moved in and Ekwueme got push increasingly to the periphery of PDP power. 

In the end, he was barely mentioned among the party leaders to consult; few even remembered that the party started in his living room. 

One thing however will stand forever as credit to his account. Twice in a position to corruptly enrich himself, Alex Ekwueme, Old Boy of Kings College, remained honest and noble. The Nigerian political environment was simply not meant for someone with a soul as beautiful as his. 

P.S. We met only twice in life. The first time was in 2005. When I introduced myself, his remark was “Are you a prophet or a wizard?” 

In 2013, he joked. “Why not start a church? The way your predictions come true you might make a lot of money.” 

“But, Sir, making money has never been your major objective. Living honourably has been.” 

“That is true, Dele.” 

May your soul rest in perpetual peace, Sir.

“No doubt, when this statesman (Dr. Alex Ekwueme) passes, many years hence, we pray, tongue-in-cheek Nigerians will gather to lament about ‘another greatest president we never had.’” – Lamentations and the self-destruct spirit; The Guardian, February 28, 2017.

When I wrote the above words some 10 months ago I had truly believed the architect of Nigeria’s six geo-political zones would be with us for many more years, contributing his usual priceless counsel to the making of Project Nigeria. Recent pictures of the octogenarian suggested he enjoyed good health; and there hadn’t been any report to the contrary. Alas, little did l know that the Heavens had, even back then, decided to call up one of their own within the year. And rightly so, I might add with hindsight: the late former vice president hardly belonged here, much like the first “greatest president we never had” was deemed by many as a misfit in our clime. But that is a twist to the narrative, to which we will return presently.

The existential challenges of the average African student in the United Kingdom (UK) had deprived me of the luxury of closely following Nigeria’s internationally acclaimed transition from military dictatorship to democracy, which sprung Alhaji Shehu Shagari, and his then little known deputy to power in 1979; but in December of the same year, the words “Dr. Alex Ekwueme” writ large in my impressionable mind. The venue was at the British Post Office in London.

In those days, (I am not so sure about the present practice) the British Post Office used to make creative use of the over supply of holiday students in London in December, to answer to the need of extra hands for sorting the usual huge haul of mail at Christmas. The job was relatively easy, and the pay relatively good. It was an annual ritual of sorts for African students in the UK. I was thus engaged on a very cold winter morning when I, at random, picked up a large white envelope addressed thus: Mrs. Margret Thatcher; 10, Downing Street, Westminster, London; England.

On the top left hand corner of the envelope were the words “Office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Ribadu Road, Ikoyi…”. Before sorting the envelope into its designated box, I impulsively showed it to my nearest colleague, Hartson Emesibe, a fellow Nigerian; and we both openly admired our vice president’s cultured handwriting – it was the handwriting of someone who spared attention to even minor details.

Long after, I would at random recall those artistically crafted letters on a large crested envelope, and wonder at the make-up of the personality that had written them. In late 1981 l would once again cross paths with Ekwueme during the course of my duty. I had in the preceding year, whilst in the employ of the Nigerian Petroleum Refinery Company (NPRC), in Port Harcourt, made a compilation of what seemed to me like unacceptable design lapses in a particular brand of vehicle assembled in Nigeria by a global manufacturer; and subsequently sent same to the Federal Ministry of Industries for further investigation.

The ministry reacted swiftly; the vehicle was consequently adjudged sub-standard and eventually withdrawn from the Nigerian market. I later learned that after the vice president read the ministry’s incident report on the matter, he directed that “the NPRC staff be co-opted into all standing committees on road vehicles under the ministry.” I felt deeply humbled in the knowledge that my modest contribution was greatly appreciated by someone in the second most important office in the country. I couldn’t resist the urge to express my appreciation to the vice president.To my greatest surprise, Ekwueme promptly responded in a three-paragraph letter, signed by no other person than himself. The words in those paragraphs proved to be the most inspiring I would ever read. They continue to inspire me even to this day.

As would be expected, news of the letter reverberated in NPRC; its CEO, the incomparable Chief J. J. Akpeiyi, one of the brightest Nigerian minds you ever met, caught wind of it, and immediately asked to see the original copy of the vee-pee’s letter. Much to my disbelief, Akpeiyi thereafter approved a post-graduate scholarship for me! I fervently hope that other persons in powerful positions would learn the implicit moral of my life-transforming encounter with our widely respected and cerebral Ekwueme: it takes the least of efforts for those in high office to make a huge impact.

From the tributes that have been pouring in since his passing in early November, there is no doubt that the late vice president was among the few Nigerian leaders who know how to employ a high office to make a huge impact on the greatest number. Therefore, Nigeria is the poorer that he was consistently denied his well deserved opportunity to “restore the years the locust has eaten,” in spite of his best endeavours. Lamentations and the self-destruct spirit was in part inspired by this realisation. Like the then Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, also rightly observed during the 50th anniversary of the death of Ambassador Isa Wali, Nigeria has a surfeit of identified able men and women who can make very impactful contributions to national development; but what she desperately lacks is the collective will to allow such identified persons, irrespective of tribe or religion, make their contributions.

Ekwueme’s qualities as a public administrator had shown as a bright star back in the Second Republic, 1979/83. His brilliance as a political strategist again had stood out amongst equals during the dark days of the dark-goggled general, mid-1990s. Ekwueme’s audacious Group of 34 later metamorphosed into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the dawn of the Fourth Republic, 1998. The former vice president had therefore been the logical, if rational presidential candidate of the party; but he was denied by Nigeria’s legendary treachery. Self-same treachery was reacted in 2003 at the PDP Eagle Square contrived Convention. (It could well be said that PDP’s great dispersion started after the Eagle Square betrayal, albeit imperceptibly).

In spite of the repeat denials, Ekwueme remained true to both his country and political party; a rather uncommon attribute in these parts. Even while he was yet submerged in a sea of political treachery, he singlehandedly laid an impeccable foundation on which a truly great Nigeria could be built: The Six Geo-Political Zones. It was the creation of a genius; and decidedly the single most important political achievement in Nigeria since 1966. What an enviable legacy; no greater tribute can be paid to the departed intellectual politician than for Nigerians to insist on completing the envisioned Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme Six Geo-Political Estate.

Emerging evidence does suggest that the accomplishments of the quintessential architect would vouchsafe for him a permanent place in the hearts of true patriots as the Father of Modern Nigeria. Mr. Vice President, sir, thank you so very much, as we, your millions of beneficiaries, wish you a blissful journey to Abraham’s bosom.

The passing on to eternal glory of an outstanding gentleman, a legendary achiever, a voracious academic and more importantly for us, an unbelievable tennis lover, came at the worst possible time for tennis in Nigeria.

Coming about a month to the grand finale of the 2017 NCC Tennis League where he was supposed to be a special guest of honour for the third time and when plans were afoot to start a Team Ekwueme to be domiciled at the Enugu Sports Club where he is a life patron, his demise really hurt.

However, his outstanding achievements packed in 85 years of a positively restless and exemplary life can only motivate and inspire those who love him.

How can one man earn academic degrees in architecture and urban development, in sociology, in history, in philosophy and law and then go through law school for the heck of it and then cap all of these with a PhD in Architecture?

How can anyone go through the cesspit of Nigerian politics, get to be vice president (the second highest office in the land) and come out without a stain? For example, Sir Alex Ekwueme GCON wound up his business empire with more than 16 offices across Nigeria in preparation for assuming office as the first executive vice president of Nigeria.

Unfortunately tennis in Nigeria is one of the big losers because his love for the sport was unbelievable. He had a tennis court in his country home and was still playing the game until his demise.

Sir Ekwueme’s love for the game and his humility was underlined when we (an NCC and ITA teams and Nduka ‘the Duke’ Odizor) visited him at his Enugu home in 2016 among other things to invite him to the 2016 grand finale.

The former vice president summoned some of his tennis loving associates, like Ben Ezeibe, all the way from Onitsha to “ drop whatever you are doing and come over quickly to Enugu, Kienka is bringing Odizor to my house tonight.”

It was an unforgettable experience as he espoused a knowledge of the game that was unimaginable and treated all to a lavish reception that included some fresh palm wine which we found out was part of his early morning or late evening tennis rendezvous with his tennis friends.

May his gentle and tennis loving soul rest in perfect peace!

Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, the cerebral, quiet, urbane and quintessential statesman who died in a London clinic the other day, was no ordinary politician. To term him a politician, as many tributes have done, is to demote him to the category of vainglorious power seekers who criss-cross the country for self-gain and clannish privileges. Beyond the man and his actions, Ekwueme was an enriching but unwittingly inadequately acknowledged concept in Nigeria’s political lexicon.

His demise has further depleted the dwindling number of great political thinkers and leaders in the country. From the moment he was sworn in on October 1, 1979 as the first elected Vice-President of Nigeria, Ekwueme made the unity, stability and development of Nigeria his lifelong project. He was one political leader who worked underground for the stability of democracy in the country, by weaving together the scarce qualities of patriotism, loyalty, consistency, in a very sacrificial manner for the national cause.

As the running mate of former President Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, he maintained utmost loyalty, even to a point of dignified subservience, notwithstanding his cerebral endowment and professional success. Despite his unjust incarceration by the military junta of the then Major General Muhammadu Buhari that toppled the Shagari government in 1983 and his subsequent release by the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, Ekwueme remained undaunted in his service to the fatherland.

Two things, it seems, could have made this possible: one was his gift of serenity and the other was his incorruptibility. Whilst the report of the Justice Samson Uwaifo-led judicial tribunal established by the Babangida regime detailed his incorruptibility, his serenity was demonstrated by his commitment, focus and sincerity of purpose which knew no bounds. It was these attributes that drove his formation of the group of 34 eminent Nigerians (G34) that firmly opposed the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. They also demonstrated his positive influence at the 1994 national constitutional conference to deliver Nigeria from the shackles of military rule. In furtherance of this resolve, the G34 became the nucleus of democratic idealists that formed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

His influence on the present democratic dispensation is so legendary that, his formation of another group of 18 eminent Nigerian (G18) had earlier led to the provision of alternative governance structure for the country. If Nigeria prides itself as a stable, renascent democratic country, the governance structure along six geo-political zones as well as the idea of inclusivity through some form of rotational presidency that made this happen, were conceived by the Ekwueme-led G18. In his unique way, devoid of needless celebration, he fought against the despoliation of the oil-producing communities and marginalised citizens.

Regardless of the toll which such sacrificial involvement in public service had on his domestic space, he was a good family man and community leader. He united all his extended family members in a very unique way by keeping the peace.

Born on October 21, 1932 in Oko, in present-day Anambra State, Ekwueme had his early formal education at St John’s Anglican Primary School, Ekwulobia, Anambra State and then King’s College, Lagos. Beside the close-knit Anglican household in which he was raised, Ekwueme’s encyclopaedic intellect, clarity of thought and urbane civility are attestation of his liberal education.

Trained as an architect, Ekwueme earned a degree in Architecture and City Planning from the University of Washington, as a Fulbright scholarship recipient. He also took a Masters degree in Urban Planning and later obtained a Ph.D in Architecture from the University of Strathclyde.

In deliberate expansion of his intellectual horizon, Ekwueme obtained degrees in Sociology, History, Philosophy and Law from the University of London. He was thereafter called to the Nigerian Bar. Ekwueme began his distinguished career in architecture in Seattle, USA and London before working in Esso West Africa, Lagos. He was also president of the Nigerian Institute of Architects.

To genuine politicians who want to understand what public service entails: when they pick up a dictionary or encyclopedia of politics, under the term public service, they would find the description of Alex Ekwueme.

Ekwueme embodies the finesse and psychic disposition required of people desirous of steering the ship of state. His involvement in politics was so deep that it was very far removed from the quotidian rat-race and importunities of immediate gratification. The reason for this lies not only in the deployment of his intellect to identify principles and values amenable to the smooth running of the state, but also to his tenacity to sustain these ideas and principles as well as the fecundity to churn out long-lasting ideas of statecraft. He was a great politician, a great leader and also a stabilising factor.

A typical philosopher-king, he was unencumbered by the baggage of appetitive cravings that have become the life pursuit of many politicians in Nigeria today. In his well-guided missives and dignified eloquence, he personified the cultivated elan which anyone transiting from mere politician to statesman should command. Politicians who accord respectability to the craft are often those whose sense of moral judgement is consistent with high level of integrity, selflessness, openness and the ability to genuinely forgive.

Throughout his political sojourn, Ekwueme punctured the near-acceptable myth amongst political idealists, which proclaims that, until highbrow politicians with a repository of ideas become presidents and heads of states in Nigeria, the country would not be prosperous. To support this position, these pundits have cited people like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mallam Aminu Kano and other great men of ideas who never became presidents to the detriment of the country. But those leaders and the likes of Ekwueme are coaches in the political arena, who think far ahead of their peers. Whilst they may not be presidents and heads of states, their fecund intellect is laden with ideas that can help identify future leaders and suggest ways of transforming and leading the country to prosperity.

His life was a sharp contrast of the life of mendacity, bitterness, murderous animosity and greed that have infested Nigeria’s political space.

Amidst the growing trend of predatory culture and willful plundering of the common wealth, Ekwueme’s death affords another brief moment for soul-searching by public officers and politicians. It reminds one that the ability to lead depends not on fleeting popularity acquired from giving hand-outs to the electorate but rather on the ability to identify and stand by enduring principles that can solve problems, appeal to common sense and satisfy the common good.

As family members, kinsmen and fellow politicians prepare for the grand reception of the remains of one of Nigeria’s most respected statesmen, Dr. Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, they should not forget in a hurry that, like the true architect which he was, Ekwueme coupled fragmented differences into a formidable national edifice.

Dr Alex Ekwueme occupied a unique space in Nigerian history. As the first elected Vice-President, Ekwueme was the face Nigeria advertised to the world that indeed the Igbos were back into the mainstream of Nigerian politics after the gruesome Civil War that ended in 1970. After that war, he made more money and decided to show the way to other Igbos who had come into wealth. By the time he was made the Vice-President to Alhaji Shehu Shagari, his philanthropy was well known. He single-handedly built the vocational centre, in Oko, his home town which has now been turned into The Federal Polytechnics, Oko. He was highly educated and knew the language of money. In the cacophony of the old National Party of Nigeria, NPN, during the Second Republic, his was a Voice of Reason. Now the voice is stilled.

When Ekwueme died Sunday, November 19 in London, it was at the end of a long farewell. When I met him in his country home in Oko, Anambra State, in 1986, it was for him, the beginning of a new life. In July 1986, my editors at Newswatch, sent me to Oko with the good news that Ekwueme, who had been in Ikoyi Prison since Shagari was toppled on December 31, 1986, would soon be freed. I broke the good news to his mother, Mama Agnes and his younger wife, Ifeoma. Everyone was ecstatic. I met the late Igwe Justus Ekwueme, the traditional ruler of the town who welcomed me with open arms. Few weeks later, Ekwueme rode to Oko in triumph. I was one of the hundreds of people who joined him and his family at the thanksgiving service in the Anglican Church in the town.

Ekwueme and Shagari were central to the cover story I anchored for Newswatch in the edition of February 3, 1986. The story, The Trial of Shagari was based on my coverage of the Justice Samson Uwaifo panel which was instituted by the new regime of General Ibrahim Babangida to review the cases of political prisoner. The panel recommended that both Shagari and Ekwueme should be released as there was no direct evidence of corruption against them. However, the press, especially the radical Newswatch, was openly against the verdict. When I brought the report, our editors, especially Dele Giwa, the Editor-in-Chief and Ray Ekpu, his deputy said the verdict was expected but unacceptable.

Ekpu, in his column for that edition, took the Uwaifo panel to the cleaners, saying its decision was kangarooic. He accused the presiding judge of “abject naiveté.” Justice Uwaifo, who was then serving on the bench of the then Bendel (now Edo and Delta) was later to rise up to the Supreme Court.

The judge believed it was an unfair blow below the belt and decided to ambush us. Knowing that trouble would likely result, I wisely stayed away from the tribunal the following Monday. Expectedly, Justice Nwaifo was deeply unhappy with Newswatch coverage, especially the provocative comment of Ekpu. He issued a bench warrant for all of us who participated in that story; Ekpu, Soji Omotunde, Joyce Osakwe, Nosa Igiebor and Dele Olojede. The following day, we were in the dock before Justice Uwaifo at the old National Assembly, Tafawa Balewa Square and only the legal skill of Chief Gani Fawehinmi saved us from joining Ekwueme at Ikoyi Prisons.

Since he was freed from prison in 1986, Ekwueme had tried to fashion out a new order for Nigeria so that future generations can be spared the ordeal that became the comeuppance of his public service. He invested his faith in the General Sani Abacha Constitutional Conference of 1994 and it was his suggestion that created the now famous six geopolitical zones of the country. Hesitant at first to join the opposition bandwagon, but by 1998, he teamed up with leaders across the country to form the G34 that came out boldly to oppose the attempt by Abacha to become “an elected leader,” sponsored jointly by the so-called five political parties. It was this G34 that eventually became the core of the nascent Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Ekwueme contested for the presidential ticket of the PDP in 1999. He was backed by the rump of the old NPN who felt that if the South would produce the President, no one should take precedence before loyal Alex. He lost to the military muscle of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who later won the presidential election of 1999. Obasanjo tried to persuade Ekwueme to run for the Senate, but he refused. Having served as number two during the Second Republic, he did not want to be number three in the national pecking order. He later served as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the then ruling party.

Ekwueme made great impacts on many aspects of Nigerian life. He was recruited into the Nigerian project by his Civil War experience. He was one of the best educated persons ever to participate in national politics. He had a doctorate degree in architecture from the University of Strathclyde and top it with another degree in law. By 1966, he was one of dashing young architects in Lagos, in high demand among the emerging glitterati. He made money and built for himself a comfortable home in the Government Reservation Area at Apapa. His neigbour was Olasubomi Balogun, a young banker and lawyer who had also embarked on a career of making money and building institutions.

By 1967, like most Igbos, Ekwueme fled Lagos, leaving his beautiful home for the Biafran enclave of Colonel Chuwkuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. The Biafran nightmare ended in 1970 and Ekwueme returned to Lagos. He was not too shocked when he realised that his Apapa home was occupied by another family. Balogun had put a tenant into the house and saved the proceeds for Ekwueme. This experience was to cement a life-long relationship between Ekwueme and Balogun, the doyen of the Nigerian banking industry and founder of the First City group.

Nine years after the war, Ekwueme emerged as the Vice-President and Balogun remained a prominent banker. One day, both the vice-president and Balogun were attending service at the historic Christ Church Cathedral, Lagos, when Balogun accosted him. He needed Ekwueme’s intervention to secure the licence for his bank, the then First City Merchant Bank, FCMB. Ekwueme obliged. The licence was issued and the rest is history.

Ekwueme conducted himself with dignity and moderation. He was already a very wealthy man by the time he joined politics in 1978 and refused to join the feasting by the perchance of the ill-fated NPN. One of the cases brought before Justice Uwaifo was that of an indigenous contractor who got a job to construct a road in Ekwueme’s home state of Anambra for the princely sum of N20.4 million. The grateful contractor distributed largess to many top NPN members including ministers. One day, he met Ekwueme in his country home in Oko and handed him a suitcase filled with N200,000.00. In those days, the highest denomination of the naira was Muri, the iconic twenty naira note with the portrait of General Murtala Muhammed. Ekwueme refused. Instead, when the contractor insisted that he wanted to help the NPN, the vice-president directed him to the party headquarters. The money was duly paid to the party chairman who provided receipt for the “donation.”

Now that he is gone, I hope that our country would learn from him the lesson of service and humility. A year after his return from prison, I went back to Oko to meet him. Within 12 months of freedom, his impact was evident. He had built a new hotel, complete with lawn tennis court and modern amenities. He and my friend, Akin Oparison, who was also visiting, were enjoying a daily game of tennis. I congratulated him for what he had done. “I am only trying to make a difference,” he said. I wish all our leaders can make a difference as Dr Ekwueme had done.

Hypocrisy may be the hallmark of political culture in Nigeria. It was evident when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was called to Higher Realm, as we lamented the “greatest President we never had”. With Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, gentleman, intellectual and great champion of fairness and balance in public life, it is even more sad watching the rush to praise on his demise.

The rush of words of praise, plenty by those who toiled to prevent Nigeria from profiting from his leadership skills and installation of decency in public life, make’s those not challenged with memory loss wonder about the essence of character in Nigeria. Do we truly look at ourselves?

I had the privilege of knowing the great man fairly well in good and in challenged times and learnt to gauge his stoic but sanguine personal disposition. His place as boss, mentor in my own run tells the story of who he was. As many very powerful engaged in frenzied lobbying for position when he was Vice-President he asked I be invited to his home. A group of young Ph.ds were being evidently pooled for his office, but he wanted my position to come from the President. He had made the recommendation to President Shagari without my having any clue such a thing was in the offing. With a casualness that still amazes me to this day he told me the President had approved for me to replace Professor Odenigwe. I was not quite sure how to respond to that, so I asked if I could think about it. He gave me liberty to go and do so. A matter that shocked my friends when I asked their view of the offer. One asked that I immediately get in his car to go back and say I had finished thinking about it and had reached an affirmative conclusion.

The baptism into public life really dawned on me when President Shagari and Dr. Ekweme went to Enugu to condole the people after the F28 plane crash in December 1983. From there I flew with him and Alhaji Umaru Dikko to Ibadan where the NPN was having a convention. Arriving the venue, Dr. Ekwueme said a few words that sounded like ejaculatory prayer, like a War Lord entering the theatre of altercation, and handed me his Ideh of Aguata traditional Chieftaincy Fan of office. I was overcome by the symbolism of that moment. As a 27 year old, not related in any way, and picked in perception of merit, it was not lost on me that the noble man standing before me was making a bet on the future and staking plenty on me. I was determined there, never to let him down. But it would not be long before things changed.

Like the military wing of the ZANU PF moved to stop Robert Mugabe so that the presumption of Grace Mugabe would be stopped, the Military wing of the NPN moved to stop Shagari, primarily so that Alex Ekwueme would not become president in 1987.

It is a factual counter point to imagine where Nigeria would be today had they not moved. But the facts continue to be more evident by the day. The class of capture which has exercised state capture in Nigeria since 1966, mortally afraid that a strong-willed Thinking Man in power could interfere with their strangle hold on the Nigerian State could not beer to see Ekwueme as president in the same way as they have tried to stop MKO Abiola and Atiku Abubakar, just as they did Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But they were not alone. The Governors of the South East did more to sabotage Nigeria’s future by conniving to rob Ekwueme a place leading the country when Gen Obasanjo could have been persuaded to live his dream of being the next Mandela by leaving in 2003. Former Delta State Governor James Ibori would prove to be a person of courage in making the point that those shedding tears that Ekwueme did not get to offer Nigeria the direction he was capable of giving, were being hypocritical because they betrayed him when the chance came.

It is not my place to write the history of what Nigeria could have been had these groups not prevented the possible transforming leaders that have come Nigeria’s way from reaching office. But I thought of it a lot more the very last time Dr. Ekwueme and I met, barely a month before he passed on. It was in Enugu at the Ikenga awards. I had given a lecture on the evolution of the Nigeria Political Economy and the Imperative of Restructuring.

As I came down from the podium Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife kept repeating excitedly, my God, that is deep. Jimi Agbaje nicely assured him that “Pat is always deep”. But Dr. Ekwueme just kept up this smile of satisfaction. He seemed to say I did not make a mistake 35 years ago. The patronly figure he was then, he remained.

But I remembered also the season of detention in the hands of many who pay warm tribute to him today. From prison he smuggled notes that I carried off to designated people around the world and those I saved for my Memoirs.

It has been a huge honor and privilege to have had the privilege of meeting and working with a true giant among men who carried himself so simply he often made nonsense, by his actions, my goal of desiring to live a simple life. When he arrived Nike Lake Resort Hotel in Enugu for what would be our final meeting just last month, he came in a Toyota Corolla. It reminded me of the remarks of a famous Architect who as a young Architect arrived London only to find that a more accomplished senior colleague had flown in the economy cabin of the same Aircraft.

How thankful I am we shared much in common by way of values. When a few years ago one of the Awolowos said to me, I see this people trying to stop you the way they tried to do to my father, I thought to myself what a great honour to walk in the path of the Awolowos and Ekwuemes. But when will the generation Y challenge those who ensured their future would be deprived of the benefits that would have come from leaders like Chief Awolowo, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and Chief MKO Abiola. Quite a tragic history.

Yes I remember the time of laughter, like the great man’s determination to catch one mosquito buzzing every ear in the room when you thought he was fully focused on an idea you had just espoused; or Mrs. Omobola Onajide carpeting a scoundrel and him sticking his fingers in his ears to hear no evil and see no evil. But above all he was a man not obsessed with who he was; determined but gentle and reassuring father figure not in the greatest hurry to impose his will but – unwavering once he was convinced he was right.

He questioned the premise of your supposition without letting you fill threatened and gave you that quiet smile when he saw you had a winner. I surely will miss being at the feet of this sage.

Last Sunday night, Nigeria lost another political giant, who many people have described as a principled and brilliant politician, a distinguished elder statesman and a man of peace.

Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, better known as Alex Ekwueme, died in a London clinic, aged 85. Though he passed on at a ripe age, he probably would have lived longer had the nation’s health system been more efficient and capable of dealing with his essentially rudimentary ailment.

Suffering from a chest infection, the first elected Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria collapsed at his Enugu residence at the tail end of last month and had to be rushed to a nearby neurosurgery hospital, where he slipped into a coma. The best the doctors could do was to stabilise him. They could not cure him. He had to be ferried abroad in an air ambulance made possible through the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari. He could not make it back, joining the elongating list of Nigerian statesmen who have died abroad from minor ailments.

Yet at his ripe age, Ekwueme would have loved to pass on peacefully at home, in a country that he had served so diligently and patriotically. He had crept into the political consciousness of Nigerians in 1979 when he emerged as the running mate to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) presidential candidate, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, in that year’s general election that ended 13 years of military rule in the country. As vice-president, he was known to have worked harmoniously with his boss, helping to smoothen the reintegration of the South-east into national politics as he skillfully negotiated the return of erstwhile Biafran leader, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, from exile.

Many political analysts would recognise that singular move, which saw Ojukwu enter the political fray on the side of the ruling NPN against his kinsman, the Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe-led Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) that was dominant in the South-east, was the most concrete evidence that was needed by his Igbo ethnic bloc to believe that their political rehabilitation and reintegration in Nigeria was indeed possible.

Ekwueme’s national integrationist politics and bridge building fervour would become more apparent after the military ended democratic rule in 1983 and installed a dictatorship that circumscribed the basic freedoms of Nigerians. Hauled into jail along with a horde of allegedly corrupt politicians of the Second Republic, his military traducers headed by then Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari had no option than to release him, having found nothing incriminating against him even when he was number two in the hierarchy of a leadership reputed more for its gross financial misdemeanour.

His high moral ground was perhaps what he needed to stand tall among his peers in the struggle for the restoration of democracy in the 1990s as politicians and civil society groups stood up to the military rulers, whose sojourn in power had been shown to be no less self-serving than their civilian counterparts that they shoved out of power more than a decade earlier. During that struggle, Ekwueme made outstanding contributions that have become his significant legacy.

At the 1995 General Sani Abacha National Constitutional Conference (NCC) in Abuja, the former vice-president exhibited a rare political brilliance, proposing a power-sharing arrangement that sought to engender equity and justice in power relations in the country. Delineating the country into six geo-political zones, Ekwueme proposed that presidential power should rotate among the zones. His proposal, which was accepted by the conference, ameliorated the fears of domination in the South by the North as it not only balanced the federation but also provided an equitable basis for ascension to power. Although the proposal never made it into the subsequent constitutions, it remains till date, the basis for power sharing among the various zones in the country.

Meanwhile, as the military became more autocratic and repressive in the face of mounting opposition to their rule by Nigerians, it was Ekwueme that rallied the critical political stakeholders massed in the G-34 that provided the political leadership for the final civilian rebellion. The group would later metamorphose into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which took the reins of government from the military and sustained democracy for 16 unbroken years before it was ousted from power two years ago. In these two ways, Ekwueme merited the accolades of a founding father of Nigeria’s nascent democracy, a principled politician and an elder statesman with an uncommon integrity.

Yet, he could not have been otherwise given his rich educational background that most probably moulded his penchant for service. Clearly one of the most educated Nigerian political leaders, Ekwueme was educated at the King’s College, Lagos, from where he went to the University of Washington to study Architecture and City Planning. With a Fulbright scholarship in his pocket, he earned a Bachelors of Science degree. He also took a Masters degree in Urban Planning and later obtained a PhD in Architecture from the University of Strathclyde. A compulsive knowledge seeker, the elder statesman also obtained degrees in Sociology, History, Philosophy and Law from the University of London. He was also a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Before he came into politics, he had worked and done business. An illustrious architect, he began his professional career as an Assistant Architect with a Seattle-based firm, Leo A. Daly and Associates and later worked with a London-based firm, Nickson and Partners. Returning to Nigeria, he worked briefly with ESSO West Africa, Lagos where he was in charge of the Construction and Maintenance department. He founded his own company, Ekwueme Associates, a firm of Architects and Town Planners. It was the first indigenous architectural firm in the country, which in little time grew its branches to about 12.

His firm and businesses gave him wealth, which he lavishly deployed in his community, helping the needy. His Education Trust Fund helped train many children up to university level. For his philanthropy, his people made him the Ide of the Oko Kingdom in Anambra State, where his younger brother, Lazarus, also a man of letters and artist, is the traditional ruler. He was also honoured by the Council of Traditional Rulers in the old Aguata as the Ide of Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State comprising 44 towns.
Ekwueme was also honoured with the Order of the Republic of Guinea and Nigeria, as well as Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), the nation’s second highest national honour.

His services transcended Nigeria. He led the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU), the precursor to the African Union (AU), observer team to the Tanzanian presidential and parliamentary election in 2000 and was the co-leader of the 28-member NDI/Carter Centre sponsored observer team to the Liberian presidential run-off election in 2005. He was also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Council of Elders as well as the leader of the team assembled by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for pre-election monitoring for the parliamentary election in Zimbabwe in 2000.
Ekwueme was married to Beatrice on December 19, 1959, who had beautiful children for him.

Tribute

Nigeria’s first executive Vice President, Dr Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, left us with valid proof that it is possible to serve one’s country without stealing, writes Tobi Soniyi
‎
‎In Nigeria, integrity is a rare quality among politicians. We struggle to find among our political elite people who place high premium on integrity. Until last Sunday however, the nation was lucky to have one‎ in Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme.

Last Sunday, Ekwueme, the first Nigerian elected vice president died in a London Hospital. A statement, signed by his brother and the traditional ruler of Oko in Anambra State, Igwe Laz Ekwueme, said Ekwueme died at 10:00 pm.
The statement reads in part: “Ekwueme family regrets to announce the peaceful passing away of their patriarch, the former Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme GCON.
“The sad event occurred at the London Clinic at 10:00 pm on Sunday 19th November 2017.”

The former vice president, who turned 85 in October, reportedly collapsed in his Enugu residence few weeks ago and was taken to the Memfys Neurosurgery Hospital, Enugu, where he relapsed and went into a coma.
President Muhammadu Buhari subsequently directed that he be immediately flown abroad for urgent medical treatment. Buhari authorised the trip after being briefed on Ekwueme’s condition.

When the military overthrew the government under which he was vice president, he alongside other politicians were sent to jail. He spent 20 months in Kirikiri prisons. Their tormentor-in-chief was Muhammadu Buhari who was the head of the military junta that overthrew the Shagari government.

But Ekwueme’s stewardship as vice president saved him as the Justice Uwaifo panel, set up by the military government of Ibrahim Babangida, set him free with these famous words: “Dr. Ekwueme left office poorer than he was when he entered it, and to ask more from him was to set a standard which even saints could not meet.” He established a thriving professional practice. He was successful in business. He however chose to serve the people and his country as vice president. He came out poorer.
Born October 21, 1932, Ekwueme was the first elected vice-president of Nigeria. He served as deputy to former President Shehu Shagari between 1979 and1983.

An Intellectual Power House
The late politician stated his primary school education at the St John’s Anglican Central School at Ekwulobia. He latter proceeded to the King’s College, Lagos.

An intellectual power house, Ekwueme had degrees in so many areas as he went about developing his capacities. As a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship in the United States of America (being one of the first Nigerians to get the award), he attended the University of Washington, Seatle, where he earned bachelor’s degree in architecture and city planning. He later obtained a master’s degree in urban planning from the same university.

Ekwueme also earned degrees in sociology, history, philosophy and law from the University of London, before proceeding to obtain a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Strathclyde in England. Yet with these many certificates in his kitty, he still had the time to proceed to the Nigeria Law School and was awarded a Barrister at Law certificate.

Career
Ekwueme was a distinguished architect. He started his professional career as an Assistant Architect with a Seattle-based firm, Leo A. Daly and Associates, and also with the London based firm Nickson and Partners. On his return to Nigeria, he joined ESSO West Africa, Lagos, overseeing the construction and maintenance department.
He then went on to create a successful private business with his firm – Ekwueme Associates, Architects and Town Planners, the first indigenous architectural firm in Nigeria. His practice flourished with 16 offices spread all over Nigeria and was wound up when he was about to resume office as the first executive vice president of Nigeria. Ekwueme had presided over the Nigerian Institute of Architects and the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria. He was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Institute of Architects.

Charitable Work
Prior to his election as vice president, Ekwueme was actively involved in the socio-economic development of his community. In addition to his many public service roles within his community, he started an active educational trust fund that sponsored education of several hundred youths to universities in Nigeria and abroad. He was a member of the housing sub-committee of the Adebo Salaries and Wages Review Commission. He also served for many years on the board of the Anambra State Housing Development Authority.

Ekwueme was a member of the Nigeria National Constitutional Conference (NCC) in Abuja, where he served on the committee on structure and framework of the constitution.

At the conference, he proposed an equitable power sharing in Nigeria based on the six geopolitical zones which he said would help to maintain a stable polity.

Ekwueme mobilized the group of 34 eminent Nigerians who risked their lives to stand up against the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha during the era of military rule in Nigeria.
He latter joined others to found the Peoples Democratic Party and was the first chairman of the party’s board of trustees.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of Canada-based Forum of Federations. He was also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Council of Elders. Ekwueme was leader of the team assembled by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for pre-election monitoring for the parliamentary election in Zimbabwe in 2000. He was the leader of the Organisation of Africa Unity(OAU) observer team to the Tanzanian Presidential and Parliamentary election in 2000. He co-led the 28-member NDI/Carter Centre sponsored observer team to the Liberian Presidential run-off election in 2005. Most recently Dr Ekwueme was called upon by the ruling party in Nigeria to head the Reconciliation Committee in the wake of intra-party discord and after the recent presidential election.
Ekwueme died when her daughter, Alexandria Chidi Onyemelukwe, the running mate of the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate, Oseloka Obaze lost her bid to become deputy governor of Anambra state.

A Nationalist
At a time when allegiance to regional political parties was in vogue, Ekwueme chose not to join the party of Nnamdi Azikiwe which was very popular in the south-east. Instead he opted for the National Party of Nigeria. His ability to see beyond his immediate environment eventually landed him the vice presidential job.

A Humble Man
At a time when the number of Nigerians with Ph D were very rear, Ekwueme agreed to serve as vice president under Shagari who only had a certificate in teaching. Some arrogant Ph D holders would have considered that as an assault.
Ekwueme, not only agreed to serve, he related with the president with deference.

Tributes

Nigerians have continued to‎ pay tributes to Ekwueme.

Using his twitter handle, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, paid tribute to Ekweume by commending his dedication and service to the nation.

He said: “Today, I join Ndigbo and the entire nation to mourn the passing of one of Nigeria’s most illustrious sons, H.E. Dr. Alex Ekwueme, our first elected Vice-President. As we mourn his death, we celebrate his dedication and service to the development of our country.

“I will always remember Dr. Alex Ekwueme for his exemplary courage in the face of overwhelming odds — when he stood up to past military regimes, and his dexterity in his personal pursuits as a successful architect, lawyer, businessman and philanthropist.”

In a statement‎, t‎he Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu expressed grief over the death of the former vice president.‎

He described Ekwueme’s death as a sad event for Nigeria and her democracy, noting that Ide Oko,as he called him, was a pillar of the nation’s democracy and the struggle for a restructured, just, equitable, and prosperous Nigeria.
He said: “Dr. Ekwueme combined the uncommon toughness and courage of Heracles with the wits of Odysseus and Nestor. His fearless battle against military rule as the convener of the Group of 34 eminent Nigerians (G-34) can be likened to Heracles’ heroic encounter with the hydra-headed chthonic monsters.

“Ekwueme was a fine gentleman and an epitome of politics without bitterness. Although he lost the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), an offshoot of the G34 and pan-Nigerian political platform he built from the scratch, he remained faithful to the party in thick and thin until his death.

“He will be remembered as a public administrator per excellence and a soldier of conscience. He stood by his people during their most challenging and difficult time, knowing that politics has a local flavor most of the time. He offered his undiluted professional service in the design and development of access to the air for Ndigbo during the civil war 1967 to 1970. As the Head of Planning of the Biafra Airports Board, the late prodigy built two functional airports in Ulli and Uga, while the airport projects at Mbaise, Ntigha Ngwa, Umuleri, and Arochukwu were at various completion stages before the end of hostilities.

“Yet, as a detribalized and pan-Nigerian, he joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) rather than the Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) in the journey to the Second Republic. He also did Ndigbo a great honour by facilitating the state pardon and eventual return from exile, and reunion of late Ezeigbo Gburugbu, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, with Ndigbo and Nigeria”.

The senator added that Ekwueme bequeathed a legacy of integrity and strength of character as “he was until his death reputed to have left office as the vice president of Nigeria poorer.”
The South-east Governors Forum described the death of Ekwueme as a great loss to the Igbo nation and the entire country.

The Chairman and Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, sad Ekwueme’s ”the end of an era.”
Umahi, in statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Emmanuel Uzor, expressed shock over the death even as he described the loss as a great one to Ndigbo in particular and Nigeria in general.
He commiserated with the Government of Anambra State and entire Ekwueme family of Oko in Anambra State for the loss and prayed God to grant him eternal rest.

“The death of our father and leader, Dr. Ekwueme is so devastating especially now that his fatherly advice is needed most. He was a great Nigerian and great believer in the unity of the country. As his children, we have learnt a lot from his deep political sagacity.

“As the Vice President of Nigeria, Ekwueme was a great rallying factor of Igbo socio-political integration. He was a voice of reason and a man who toiled to place Ndigbo at the centre of mainstream politics. Indeed, we have lost a rare gem, a gentleman and a decent politician and academia”, the statement said.
The governor said that the South-east zone through the governors would soon draw a programme on how to pay last respects to the fallen statesman.

Also,‎ a former Minister of Education and Co-convener of the BringBackOurGirls group, Oby Ezewesili said she was pained by the death of the corner vice president.

“Really pained that former Vice President Alex Ekwueme did not make it back home to us and has now gone the way of all flesh. We remember him with fondness for his strides in the Land. May our Gracious God comfort Aunt Beatti, Chidi and all the Ekwueme clan”, she said on Twitter.
A Lagos lawyer, Mr Festus Keyamo, (SAN) recalled that Ekwueme was at the Supreme Court two months ago for the swearing in of new senior advocates.

He said: “It was just about two months ago that I last saw Dr. Alex Ekwueme. He was physically present at the Supreme Court for the induction of the new SANs. Such a fine gentleman. His passage is a big loss to the country as a whole. Deep commiseration to the Ekwueme family.”

Quote

We struggle to find among our political elite people who place high premium on integrity.

The curtains were drawn on the life of former Vice President Alex Ekwueme in the wee hours of yesterday. He passed on in a London hospital. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU revisits his political career, his style in office, accomplishments and failed bid for the presidency.

He was an excellent example of a technocrat in politics. To him, politics was not an occupation, but a vocation. His compatriots describe him as a gentleman who could not ruffle feathers. He was a man of peace. As a private and public figure, he avoided controversy like a plague. Till he breathed his last, he was a man of integrity.

Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, architect, lawyer, sociologist, historian, philosopher, businessman and former vice president, knew his onions. He was a successful man who ventured into politics with optimism. The motivation was service to his fatherland. Although he operated in a rough era when opulence and kleptomania filled the hearts of major operators, he was isolated from the pack as a politician who was above board.

Life full of lessons

As vice president to Alhaji Shehu Shagari in the National Party of Nigeria (NPN)-led Federal Government in the Second Republic, Ekwueme was believed to have joined a bad company. He was like a sheep in the midst of wolves.

The eminent politician was not in the class the illustrious pathfinders and nationalist politicians, who laid the foundation for an independent Nigeria. He was not even a lieutenant or associate of the men of the old order. No historian will describe him as a colourful politician, a vocal megastar and highly influential chieftain in the Second Republic, the era that threw him up as the number two citizen. It is debatable whether Ekwueme can be described as a giant of history. But, many would agree that he played his meagre role in the history of presidential democracy.

Yet, his life embodied a compendium of lessons. Ekwueme was a man of contentment. In office, he was as gentle as a dove. He acknowledged the constraints of his exalted office. He was a vice president handicapped by constitutional limitations. It may be argued that he had much prospects as a deputy president. But, he was not under any illusion that he was a deputy commander-in-chief. Under former President Shagari, he was a loyal deputy; a great spare tyre with a narrow sphere of influence, unlike flamboyant Transport Minister Dr. Umaru Dikko, party chairman Chief Adisa Meridith Akinloye and pompous NPN National Secretary Senator Uba Ahmed. A long pole separated Shagari and Ekwueme in terms of education. Despite his five degrees, including one in law and a doctorate degree in architecture, he was, according to the dictate of the presidential system, an occupant of a powerless office and a shadow deputy leader.

‘Accidental’ deputy

Although Ekwueme was not Shagari’s choice, he became a running mate by sheer fate. The former president wanted a woman as his vice.

But, the woman he had in mind, an Igbo from the same Southeast, declined the offer, saying that the job would be rigorous for a woman.

The First Republic Minister of Trade & Commerce, Dr. Ozumba Mbadiwe, also lobbied for the slot. But, Shagari tactically turned it down. Both were ministers under Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. When his candidature was rejected, the man fondly called the “man of timber and caliber”, described the position was a “repeater station to a major station”.

Mbadiwe was later appointed as Presidential Adviser on national Assembly Matters and much later, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

In 1983, Anambra State was a battle ground between the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) Governor Jim Nwobodo and Chief Christian Onoh of the NPN. Ekwueme was happy that his party finally made an in-road into Zik’s prime territory. It was in the days of winning by moon slide. The euphoria lasted for three months. Onoh, like other governors, was booted out of office by soldiers.

Loyalty as a virtue

After the 1983 general election, Ekwueme’s political fate was sealed. There was no evidence that he would succeed

Shagari despite his loyalty. He was a tested and trusted ally. He was indirectly groomed for the number one position. But, loyalty, competence, experience and proximity to the prime position were not enough criteria for succession. The Yoruba in the NPN believed that the presidency would shift to the Southwest in 1987. The charismatic chairman, Akinloye, was already warming up for the office. In the four years and three months he served, there was no evidence that Ekwueme undermined or subverted his boss. But, he was not in the calculation of the party hierarchy for succession.

During the NPN national caucus meeting, the former vice president usually sat beside his boss. Both president and vice president were only distinguished members of the caucus presided over by Akinloye. In that atmosphere of party supremacy, discipline was the watch word.

That discipline was usually exhibited by the duo of Shagari and Ekwueme, to the applause of Akinloye, Alhaji Mohammed Makaman Bida, Alhaji Shetima Ali Mongonu, Alhaji Suleman Takuma, Senate President Joseph Wayas, Chief Lulu Briggs, Senator Wash Pam and Senator Olusola Saraki. In fact, Ekwueme was taken aback in 1999, when that scenario could not be re-enacted in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo became the president.

Already a rich architect and businessman, Ekwueme refused to participate in the widespread festival of graft that permeated the life of Shagari administration. The two leaders – Shagari and Ekwueme – watched helplessly as the looting went on. Yet, Ekwueme suffered a collateral damage. When the military that toppled the inept government went after its functionaries, the former vice president was not spared. There was no evidence of financial crime to nail him at the tribunal. He only languished in detention without justification for almost two years.

Politics in the blood

Ekwueme had been interested in politics as a young man. In the First Republic, he had wanted to serve as a member of the Eastern Regional House of Assembly on the platform of the defunct National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC). He failed to get the ticket at the primary.

That was his first baptism of fire in politics. After that, he became a dormant member of the party until it was banned by the military in 1966.

His credentials are fascinating. He was highly educated. Ekwueme was also a blue blood. He was a community man. Yet, when the throne was vacant, he declined to mount it. He was the Ide of the Oko kingdom in Anambra State, where his younger brother, Prof Lazarus Ekwueme, a music teacher, reigns as the traditional ruler. He was also honoured by the Council of Traditional Rulers in the old Aguata as the Ide of Aguata Local Government Area. The local government comprise of 44 towns.

Career

Ekwueme started primary school at the St John’s Anglican Central School, Ekwulobia. He proceeded to King’s College, Lagos. As an awardee of the Fulbright Scholarship in the United States of America (U.S.A.), he attended the University of Washington where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture and City Planning. He obtained his Master’s Degree in Urban Planning. Ekwueme also earned degrees in Sociology, History, Philosophy and Law from the University of London. He obtained a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Strathclyde. He earned the BL (Honours) Degree from the Nigerian Law School.

A distinguished architect, Ekwueme started his professional career as an Assistant Architect with a Seattle-based firm, Leo A. Daly and Associates, and also with the London-based firm Nickson and Partners.

On his return to Nigeria, he joined ESSO West Africa, Lagos, overseeing the Construction and Maintenance Department. He later set a successful private business with his firm, Ekwueme Associates, Architects & Town Planners, the first indigenous architectural firm in Nigeria. His practice flourished with 16 offices spread all over Nigeria. He was the President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects.

He also presided over the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria. Ekwueme served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Institute of Architects.

A philanthropist, Ekwueme has an active Educational Trust Fund that has been responsible for sponsoring the education of many youths to universities in Nigeria and abroad. He was a member of the Housing sub-committee of the Adebo Salaries and Wages Review Commission. He also served on the board of the Anambra State Housing Development Authority.

Roles in constitutional

development

Ekwueme did not quit politics after his release from prison, unlike Shagari who went into political retirement. He was a delegate to the Nigeria National Constitutional Conference (NCC) in Abuja set up by the dreadful dictator, the late Gen. Sani Abacha. He served on the Committee on the Structure and Framework of the Constitution. His views were respected at the conference as an elder statesman. Ekwueme’s famous proposals at the NCC for a just and equitable power sharing in Nigeria based on the six geo-political zones have been accepted as necessary for maintaining a stable polity. The former vice president mobilised the group of 34 eminent Nigerians who risked their lives to stand up against Abacha’s dictatorship. The late Chief Solomon Lar was mandated to take a ‘sack’ letter to Abacha in Aso Villa. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Canada-based Forum of Federations. He is also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Council of Elders. Ekwueme was leader of the team assembled by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for pre-election monitoring for the parliamentary election in Zimbabwe in 2000. He was the leader of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) Observer Team to the Tanzanian presidential and parliamentary elections in 2000. He also co-chaired the 28 member-NDI/Carter Centre sponsored Observer Team to the Liberian presidential run-off election in 2005.

Unfulfilled life ambition

Ekwueme had a life-time ambition to serve as the president. It conformed with the collective political aspiration of Igbo to produce the president. To the race, it is critical to its full integration into Nigeria in the post-civil war ear. However, his thinking and style betrayed an understanding of national politics. He worked actively for the establishment of the PDP. He was full of expectation.

But, at that time, two issues were at play. The retired generals had constituted themselves into a formidable bloc in the party. Also, the Southwest was in despair and crying wolf over the annulment of the historic June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late Chief

Moshood Abiola. The party zoned the slot to the Southwest to appease the aggrieved zone. Although Ekwueme and the late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi threw their hats in the ring, the zoning notwithstanding, they met their waterloo at the primary. Obasanjo, who did not know how the party was formed, got the ticket. Ekwueme was bitter and he did not hide his feelings.

Former President Obasanjo decided to wield both government and party power, to the consternation of the founding fathers. The PDP chairman, Lar, was shoved aside. Gradually, the founding fathers and party elders were sidelined. Although Ekwueme did not leave the PDP till he passed on, he was not active at the twilight of life. He was on reconciliation mission on many occasions, but they were almost futile.

The PDP gladiators turned a deaf ear to his words of wisdom to the party’s peril. His daughter was the running mate to Osekola Obaze, the Anambra State PDP governorship candidate in last Saturday’s poll that produced Willy Obiano Life full of lessons

. Former Governor Peter Obi and Obaze explained that it was a tribute to his stature as a father figure.

Ekwueme was honoured with the Order of the Republic of Guinea and Nigeria’s second highest national honour of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).

He left behind a country trying to recover from the multiple ills of corruption, economic upheavals, disunity and insecurity. More importantly, he did not realise the dream of an ‘Igbo Presidency’ in his life time.

They have shut down the factory that produced the political breed of Dr. Alexandra Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme. They don’t make them like Ekwueme anymore. Upright, cerebral, courageous and loyal — it is often a contradiction in terms to attach any of those adjectives to a Nigerian politician. Yet, in the last four decades, Ekwueme, who is currently hospitalised, has demonstrated those virtues largely unappreciated. Or, at best, underappreciated. The politicians that we recognise and celebrate are the noisemakers, the pilferers, the nitwits, the chameleons, the bandits. Even with my excessive distrust of politicians, I can afford to make exceptions. Ekwueme is an exception.
When I heard on Wednesday that he had slipped into a coma, I said: “Not again!” Too many times in my life, I have procrastinated in paying tribute to Nigerians who truly inspire me while they are alive. When they die, I will start writing tributes that they cannot read in the grave. Maybe it is human nature to demonise people when they are around and canonise them when they are gone. The way we eulogise dead people makes me feel that maybe if we had said those words to their hearing, some would have lived longer. Thankfully, Ekwueme is still alive. I can finally “cleanse my soul” with a tribute from my heart. No matter his failings as a mortal, he is a man of adorable virtues.

Upright. After being detained in Kirikiri prisons for 20 months following the coup of December 31, 1983, the military tribunal that tried him over his tenure as vice-president to Alhaji Shehu Shagari (1979-1983) did not only discharge and acquit him, it also eulogised him thus: “Dr. Ekwueme left office poorer than he was when he entered it, and to ask more from him was to set a standard which even saints could not meet.” Nobody says that about Nigerian politicians anymore. The most common story is that they became stupendously rich just after a few minutes in office, with mansions in Dubai, New York and Banana Island to show for their “service” to the nation.

Cerebral. I do not know many Nigerian politicians, dead or alive, with the academic grounding of Ekwueme. He has four first degrees: architecture and city planning (from the University of Washington, US, as one of the first four US Fulbright scholars from Nigeria); sociology (also WU); history, philosophy and constitutional law (as an external candidate of the University of London); and law (London). He has a master’s in urban planning (London). He also holds a PhD in architecture (University of Strathclyde, Scotland). For all his degrees, he was loyal to, and respectful of, Shagari, who didn’t have a degree. Ekwueme was called to the Nigerian bar in 1990 at the age of 58.

Therefore? Therefore, you could see the depth of knowledge, intellect and foresight in some of his contributions to the nationhood debate in Nigeria. In 1995, he proposed the six geopolitical zones which Nigerians now hold dearly as a commandment from God. To manage the mistrust and fears about domination among the different components of Nigeria, he suggested power rotation and six vice-presidents. To prevent the Yar’Adua scenario that we are yet to recover from, he proposed that if a president dies, resigns or is removed, the VP from the zone should complete the tenure. To tackle the oft-acrimonious re-election bids, he suggested a single-term tenure.

Not that all his ideas are perfect, but they offer solutions to some of our perennial political crises. We freely discuss Nigeria today as north-west, north-central, north-east, south-west, south-south and south-east. I must say I have my reservations about the assumption that these sub-identities are settled. For instance, of the six zones, only the south-east is close to homogeneity in ethnicity and religion — the two biggest identifiers in Nigeria. The rest are far from homogenous. But, in fairness, Ekwueme’s idea of geo-political zoning represents a layer of nationhood that is largely acceptable even among agitators in today’s Nigeria. We owe Ekwueme some kolanuts for that.

Ekwueme apparently paid a price for his ideas. His geopolitical proposal was initially interpreted as an attempt to break up or weaken northern political solidarity. I don’t know if that is the same perspective today. He was accused of trying to even things with the south-west by making sure the Igbo had a zone of equal status. But how is that a sin? More so, his proposal to decentralise the army to make coups difficult, if not impossible, was twisted to mean he was advocating regional armies and promoting confederacy through the backdoor. I’m inclined to think these misinterpretations counted against him in his bids to be president in 1999 and 2003.

Courageous. When Gen. Sani Abacha was in power, his biggest opposition came from two camps: the civil society and senior politicians. The civil society, with NADECO in the lead, fought from the trenches, insisting that the military should leave power and hand over to Chief MKO Abiola, the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election. On the other hand, some elements in the political class, working from the inside, organised within their ranks to fight for the restoration of democracy, albeit without insisting on the restoration of Abiola’s stolen mandate. As narratives go in Nigeria, the only democrats were those who fought for Abiola.

Yet, the role of these politicians was as dangerous, if not as suicidal, as that of NADECO. Abacha was in no mood for any agitation for democracy as long as it did not mean perpetuating himself in power. Ekwueme was a key player in organising some politicians against Abacha’s self-succession plans that began to materialise in 1995. Ekwueme chaired the All-Nigeria Politicians Summit at Eko Hotel, Lagos, to demand a return to democracy. It was disrupted by political thugs, with the security agencies watching as if they were at a cinema. Ekwueme also chaired the Institute of Civil Society (ICS), which continued the demand for a return to democracy.

After the launch of ICS, chaired by Justice Kayode Eso, Ekwueme held a meeting in his house in Lagos with northern politicians — Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Solomon Lar, Chief Sunday Awoniyi (all late now) and Mallam Adamu Ciroma — and told them there was an impression everyone in the north was supporting Abacha’s transmutation plot. They agreed to fire a letter to Abacha, with the understanding that a pan-Nigerian group would follow. The northern politicians, called G-18, met in Kaduna and wrote to Abacha to demand a return to democracy. Lar delivered the letter. Abacha was yet to recover from the shock when the enlarged group, G-34, was formed.

G-34 met at Ekwueme’s Lagos office to finalise their plans. A committee of four — Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, Senator Onyeabor Obi, Prof. Jerry Gana and Ekwueme — prepared a stinging letter, warning Abacha not to transmute from military ruler to civilian president as he was planning to do, with the five political parties having adopted him as their “consensus” presidential candidate in a well-choreographed charade. It amounted to wilful suicide writing such a letter at a time Abacha was sparing no bombs in taking out his opponents. NADECO was already too hot for Abacha to handle. Now senior politicians were on his case. It was double trouble.

Abacha died in June 1998 and Abiola also died in detention the following month. We still don’t know the true details of what happened but we can reasonably speculate that the deaths were not accidental. The military moved to restore democracy and, naturally, G-34 was in the centre of things. It practically formed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which would go on to win the 1999 presidential election on the strength of its national appeal. Ekwueme, as a respected founding father, sought to be the presidential candidate but was defeated at the primary election by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, whom many believed was the anointed candidate of the military.

Loyal. Ekwueme had every right to make life difficult for the PDP and Obasanjo over the presidential ticket in 1999. It had been agreed by the party’s national executive committee on November 24, 1998 that a presidential aspirant must have delivered his LGA and state to the PDP in the council and governorship elections. On that score, Obasanjo was not qualified to contest, yet it was clear the military wanted the next president to come from the south-west. Ekwueme did not make an issue out of it. He could have engineered a crisis and handed victory to the opponents by default. He was clearly a loyal party man. You don’t say that of many Nigerian politicians today.

Now, that was the point at which I began to idolise Ekwueme. He not only openly congratulated Obasanjo at the convention ground in Jos — a clear departure from the politics of bitterness we play in Nigeria — he went on to chair the campaign fundraiser for Obasanjo. Wait for this: when Dr. Pius Okigbo and Prof. Ben Nwabueze later went on air, on behalf of Ohanaeze, to declare that the Igbo should vote for Chief Olu Falae, Ekwueme countered. He personally paid for radio slots to ask Igbo to support Obasanjo. He even met with Igbo community in Lagos to push this position. Sadly, Obasanjo was reportedly made to believe Ekwueme was behind the Ohanaeze broadcast.

For all his grace, therefore, Ekwueme was politically ostracised by Obasanjo. He was accorded only one ministerial slot, and even his nominee — Prof. Barth Nnaji from Enugu state — was not appointed. Not surprisingly, Ekwueme was more confrontational and unforgiving in his next bid for the PDP ticket in 2003. This time he did not congratulate Obasanjo. He believed there were underhand tactics at the convention which undermined fairness. But he never left the PDP. Fidelity is not a common virtue in Nigerian politics these days. Given that no human is perfect, Ekwueme thoroughly deserves our respect. I wish the Ide of Oko kingdom quick and full recovery.
===

Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme GCON (October 21, 1932 – November 19, 2017) was the first elected Vice-President of Nigeria, in office from 1979 to 1983.

Ekwueme was the Ide of the Oko kingdom in Anambra State, where his younger brother Prof Lazarus Ekwueme, reigns as the traditional ruler. He was also honoured by the council of Traditional Rulers in the old Aguata as the Ide of Aguata Local GovernmentArea of Anambra State comprising forty-four (44) towns. He died at 10.00pm on Sunday 19 November 2017 at a London clinic. He had to be flown there after his relapse to a coma which he fell into as a result of his fall in his Enugu residence.[1]

Dr. Alex Ekwueme started primary school at the St John's Anglican Central School, at Ekwulobia, then he proceeded to King's College, Lagos.[2]As an awardee of the Fulbright Scholarship in the United States of America (being one of the first Nigerians to gain the award), He attended the University of Washington where he earned bachelor's degree in Architecture and city planning. He obtained his master's degree in urban planning. Dr. Ekwueme also earned degrees in sociology, history, philosophy and law from the University of London. He later proceeded to obtain a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Strathclyde, before gaining the BL (honours) degree from the Nigerian Law School.

Alex Ekwueme was a distinguished architect. He started his professional career as an Assistant Architect with a Seattle-based firm, Leo A. Daly and Associates, and also with the Londonbased firm Nickson and Partners. On his return to Nigeria, he joined ESSO West Africa, Lagos, overseeing the Construction and Maintenance department.

He then went on to create a successful private business with his firm - Ekwueme Associates, Architects and Town Planners, the first indigenous architectural firm in Nigeria. His practice flourished with 16 offices spread all over Nigeria and was wound up in preparation for Dr. Ekwueme assuming office as the first executive Vice President of Nigeria. Dr. Ekwueme had presided over the Nigerian Institute of Architects and the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria.

He was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Institute of Architects. Before Dr. Ekwueme gained national and international limelight as the Vice President of Nigeria in 1979, he was actively involved in the socio-economic development of his community. In addition to his many public service roles within his community, Dr. Ekwueme started an active Educational Trust Fund that has been responsible for sponsoring the education of several hundred youths to universities in Nigeria and abroad. Dr. Ekwueme was a member of the housing sub-committee of the Adebo Salaries and Wages Review Commission. He also served for many years on the board of the Anambra State Housing Development Authority On the national front. Dr. Ekwueme participated in the Nigeria National Constitutional Conference (NCC) in Abuja, where he served on the Committee on the Structure and Framework of the Constitution.

His famous proposals at the NCC for a just and equitable power sharing in Nigeria based on the six geopolitical zones have now come to be accepted as necessary for maintaining a stable Nigerian polity. Dr Ekwueme mobilized the group of 34 eminent Nigerians who risked their lives to stand up against the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha during the era of military rule in Nigeria. He was the founding Chairman of the ruling party in Nigeria and was the first Chairman of the party's Board of Trustees. Dr. Ekwueme was a prolific philanthropist, public servant, and a man of peace.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of Canada-based Forum of Federations. He was also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Council of Elders. Dr. Ekwueme was leader of the team assembled by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for pre-election monitoring for the parliamentary election in Zimbabwe in 2000. He was the leader of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) observer team to the Tanzanian Presidential and Parliamentary election in 2000. Dr. Ekwueme co-led the 28 member NDI/Carter Centre sponsored Observer Team to the Liberian Presidential run-off election in 2005. Most recently Dr Ekwueme was called upon by the ruling party in Nigeria to head the Reconciliation Committee in the wake of intra-party discord and after the recent presidential election. He was honoured with the Order of the Republic of Guinea and Nigeria, second highest national honours of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). Dr. Ekwueme was the benefactor and Patron of the "Alex Ekwueme Foundation".

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