The immediate past chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party ANPP and former Speaker of the House of Representatives in the defunct Second Republic Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke is dead.
He died in India in the early hours of yesterday at the age of 76.
Ume-Ezeoke, a running mate to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in the April 2007 presidential election, has been abroad in the past weeks for medical treatment.
ANPP yesterday expressed shock over the death describing him as a courageous politician. “We will be missing his advice. As a former leader of our great party, we are getting in touch with his family for the burial arraignment”, the national publicity secretary of the party Hon. Emma Eneukwu told LEADERSHIP.
Meanwhile, prominent members of the ANPP have expressed shock over the demise of the veteran politician, praying God to grand him eternal rest. A member of the national executive committee (NEC), and chairman Adamawa state chapter of the ANPP Alhaji Umar Duhu described his death as a loss to the nation.
According to Duhu, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke will be remembered for the services he rendered to the nation while at the National Assembly. He however prayed God to grand the family the fortitude to bear the loss.
A former minister of state for Defense and chieftain of the ANPP Alhaji Abdulrahman Adamu described Ume-Ezeoke’s death as a loss to the nation. “We will be missing him. God always gives and takes. We pray Allah to grant him eternal rest”.
At the peak of his political career, Ume-Ezeoke worked and walked in the midst of many of the founding fathers of the Nigerian federation. A lot of them had either died or quit politics. But like a soldier, Late Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke was a personification of raw strength, candor and tact.
Ume-Ezeoke studied law at the Holborn College, London between 1962-1966. He emerged speaker of the House of Representatives in 1979. As an astute politician and legal luminary, the Anambra State-born politician has had his best and worst of times. He had opportunities to serve in various capacities and had not disappointed his admirers, especially his constituents in Anambra. Perhaps one of his greatest moments was when he became the speaker of the House in the Second Republic.
This was despite the fact that he belonged to an opposition party, the Nigerian Peoples Party founded by the late great Zik of Africa.
The benevolence of the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) gave him an ample opportunity to inscribe his name in gold as the speaker of the House. He was once the chairman, presidential technical committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution.
Ume-Ezeoke was one of the earliest Igbomen to declare his ambition for the presidency in 2003. Like late Chuba Okadigbo and Nwodo, the former speaker worked to actualize his presidential ambition on the platform of the ANPP. He had said apart from the fact that justice demanded that Ndigbo should produce the president, he was the most qualified for the job.
As a speaker, he had his ups and downs. He was threatened with impeachment by some lawmakers over the furnishing of legislator’s quarters at 1004 flats, house tenders board, and other sundry issues. A group of legislators under the aegis of committee for the defence of democracy spearheaded the crusade. It alleged that there was an attempt to cover up an alleged N1.7m deal involving a member of the board. But reason soon prevailed.
Ume-Ezeoke also fought a supremacy war with the then Senate President, Chief Joseph Wayas during the maiden joint session of the National Assembly. But he later gave in over who should preside and direct the affairs of the sitting. He also stirred certain controversies as speaker. He was of the firm belief that only lawyers could serve in that capacity at any level. Perhaps, Senator Olorunnimbe, a medical doctor and others could not have had the opportunity of being speakers in some states if Ume-Ezeoke had prevailed. He had said, “It will be tragic to make a non-lawyer, speaker of an assembly. In all civilised countries, it has always been to make lawyers so. I don’t know which speaker of any assembly who is not a lawyer.”
His views on the governors in the second republic were remarkable. In November 7, 1980, Ume-Ezeoke strongly canvassed for their exclusion from the national economic council. He said, “The governors have been members of the NEC for one year now and have not produced any tangible solution to pressing economic problems facing the nation.”
In 1993, Ume-Ezeoke was almost cut down by assassin’s bullets in Lagos. The gang invaded his residence in Ikoyi, Lagos at 2.30am and pumped bullets into the lawyer. He was quickly flown abroad for treatment. He had hardly arrived in London when speculations became rife that he had died. Yet, he was able to survive the trauma.
When some ‘wise men’ under the aegis of G.34 decided to transform into a political party in 1998, he stood to be counted among them. He became a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party. However, he soon defected to the All Nigeria Peoples Party following irreconcilable differences among some PDP leaders.
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