THE late Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, former vice president of Nigeria has been described as the best president that Nigeria never had. Dickson Ozokwelu, who works with the office of energy efficiency and renewable energy at the US Department of Energy’s Headquarters in Washington DC, United States, said Ekwueme believed so much in one Nigeria that he put the country first everything he planned to do.

In his tribute to the late Ekwueme, Ozokwelu who benefited from Ekwueme’s philanthropy by way of academic support through Ekwueme Memorial Trust Fund, said the former vice president worked assiduously  to unite the nation. He said Ekwueme was a national leader and a great patriot.

“He was calm and very courageous. Of course, he was the Vice President of Nigeria from 1979 to 1983 during the Alhaji Shehu Shagari administration. Needless to say, he was a very loyal Vice President to Alhaji Shagari with whom he maintained a life-long friendship.

“Ekwueme left a lot of legacies. One of the most outstanding of those legacies is arguably the six geopolitical zonal structure which Nigeria currently uses in the delimitation of units of political space. It is on record that as both a politician and leader, Ekwueme led the battle to restore democracy to Nigeria by rallying opposition to late General Sani Abacha who had wanted to transmute into a civilian dictator.

“In response, Ekwueme started assembling what was then known as the Group of 11, which soon grew to G-18, G-34 and finally became what we know today as the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). As a politician, Ekwueme left a lasting legacy as one politician who was not only upright but one who was incorruptible.

“This sparkling quality was evident throughout his entire life and throughout all the things he did in Nigeria–both in the private and public sectors. He was not corrupt. Indeed, not corrupt is a gross understatement. Ekwueme was incorruptible and I believe all Nigerians bear testimony to this fact.

“At a time, such as now, when we are engaged in a war against corruption, let’s not forget that there was a man who walked the political space in this country at the highest level. He had all the opportunity to amass wealth for himself and enrich his family, friends and cronies—which has since become the norm in our nation—but vehemently refused to do so.

“As is also common knowledge, at the time the government that he served was overthrown, in December, 1983, by the Military, led by no other person—than the current president, General Muhammadu Buhari. In the end, Ekwueme was thoroughly investigated by the panel organized for that purpose and found totally clean of corruption.

“Remarkably, of all the politicians of that era investigated, Ekwueme was the only one that was found to be corruption free. Not only was he found to be free of corruption, the panel declared that he was the only one who actually came out of office poorer than he was when he went in. That is remarkable, even by international standards,” he said.

According to Ozokwelu, Ekwueme played diverse and noble roles in his life. “Among the roles, was his great impact on my life, in addition to few other positive ones I will mention and then attempt to expatiate on one by one. First, Ekwueme was a great philanthropist. Second, Ekwueme was a great intellectual as shown by his ability to earn degrees across diverse disciplines, including Law, Architecture, Sociology, Urban and Town Planning, et cetera.

“As a great professional, he is one of the few Nigerians who not only had academic degrees, but also displayed his prowess throughout his practice and lifestyle. He started his Ekwueme Associates, an Architectural, Urban and Town Planning firm—which made major contributions to the development of the Nigeria,” he said.

– Jan. 29, 2018 @ 16:19 GMT