Ekweremadu: Demonising a dog to hang it

When in August 1963, the revered Martin Luther King Jr mounted the Lincoln Memorial Steps on the National Mall to deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech before a mammoth crowd, the FBI took notice of him and his activities. In truth, the FBI had never been comfortable with King. He was critical of […]

When in August 1963, the revered Martin Luther King Jr mounted the Lincoln Memorial Steps on the National Mall to deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech before a mammoth crowd, the FBI took notice of him and his activities. In truth, the FBI had never been comfortable with King. He was critical of the government and never pulled a punch in delivering his message. Watching King deliver his earth-moving speech, William Sullivan, the chief of FBI Domestic Intelligence, felt this was the height of it. Martin Luther must be destroyed!

Two days after Luther King’s speech, Sullivan wrote in a memo, “We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous negro of the future in this nation from the standpoint of communism, the negro and national security”. Following Sullivan’s memo, a massive surveillance operation on King was quickly approved, and the then FBI Director, Edgar Hoover, became increasingly fixated on proving that King had communist ties and discrediting him generally.

There is no doubt that Ekweremadu has been a marked man since the beginning of the present administration. His ordeal began when, against all odds, he ‘breached’ the Fourth Protocol by emerging as the deputy president of the 8th Senate. How could Ekweremadu be so brazen? Was he not afraid to thread where angels dreaded? The southeast voted massively for the PDP and why should the deputy senate president go to them? Basically, this is Ekweremadu’s sin.

The first salvo was a frivolous allegation that he, alongside others, doctored the rules of the senate to ensure that he emerged as the deputy senate president. He was subsequently dragged to court along with the Senate President Senator Bukola Saraki. The government had no case against them and had to withdraw it.

Unknown assailants also attacked his convoy in broad daylight in Abuja. We are yet to hear the police report on the incident. Not even a word was heard from security agencies.

Sometime in 2017, Ekweremadu raised an alarm that he was tipped-off on government’s (specifically EFCC) to plant huge sums of money in various currencies in his house in Enugu. The EFCC denied. But, not long, the police raided his Abuja guesthouse in a Gestapo style, but found nothing.

Recently, Ekweremadu again stirred the hornet’s nest when he spoke fearlessly against the high-handedness of the executive and some APC governors, the angst, despair, and nadir in the land and warned that we were creating fertile grounds for another military adventure into politics. Rather than address issues raised, he was promptly accused of suggesting a military coup, but Nigerians were not fooled. The government felt threatened. However, this fiery contribution at the floor of the senate was the height of it. He must be destroyed at all costs.

Senator Ekweremadu had raised an alarm on this latest plot when he went public to accuse a former chief judge in Enugu State and some other persons of stealing and doctoring his will from Enugu judiciary (Probate Registry) by adding fictitious properties. They started churning out baseless petitions to government agencies and officials. He accused the chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Okoi Obono-Obla, of a grand smear campaign.

Contrary to the demonizing narrative which the government and its journeymen are trying so hard to create, Ekweremadu has blazed the trail in repositioning his constituents and beyond. He has turned Enugu-west Senatorial district and beyond into one huge construction site. He has provided succor to the needy through his foundation, which he established long before he became a senator. He is the pride of Nigerian youths, a man of integrity whose towering standing cannot be tarnished by the smears of hatred and political diatribes.

He has also brought verve and intellectual depth to lawmaking in Nigeria and stands tall as beacon of the Senate. We cannot destroy our very best in the name of politics. People like him are generational thinkers and don’t come very often. If you destroy such people, you destroy a nation’s destiny, essentially because in such men God has writ large the destiny of millions. This government should focus on addressing issues of insecurity, collapsing economy, hunger, etc. rather than wasting precious time chasing shadows in the bid to bring down an innocent man simply because 2019 is near. 

Ochie is an Enugu-based public affairs analyst.