Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, Nigeria’s first vice president, died in a London clinic on Sunday, November 19, 2017. The country is mourning him.
He celebrated his 85th birthday on October 21, and seven days later collapsed at his residence and was hospitalised at the Memfys Neurosurgery Hospital in Enugu for about two weeks. Then he was flown abroad.
Born on October 21, 1932, Ekwueme contributed significantly to the socio-political and economic growth of Nigeria, where he was one of the most educated political leaders; which did not come cheap.
He was an extraordinary scholar who earned multiple degrees in architecture, urban planning, sociology, history, philosophy and law from several universities.
Ekwueme had his primary education at St. John’s Anglican Central School, Ekwulobia, Anambra State before proceeding to King’s College, Lagos.
He earned a degree in architecture and city planning from the University of Washington as a Fulbright scholarship recipient, a Master’s in urban planning, and a PhD in architecture from the University of Strathclyde.
He also obtained degrees in sociology, history, philosophy and law from the University of London. He was called to the Nigerian Bar.
His professional career began as an assistant architect with a Seattle-based firm, Leo A. Daly and Associates, and with the London-based firm, Nickson and Partners, before coming home to establish Ekwueme Associates, Architects and Town Planners, the first indigenous architectural firm in Nigeria.
His professional legacies dot various Nigerian cities, and was at one time president of the Nigerian Institute of Architects.
Ekwueme, the Ide of Oko, was an acclaimed community leader and philanthropist par excellence, who was actively involved in the socio-economic development of his community. About 14,000 people are on his scholarship list.
At the international level, he was the leader of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) observer team to the Tanzanian presidential and parliamentary elections in 2000 and also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Council of Elders.
He left the most indelible marks in the political sands of time, gaining national and international limelight when he took the oath of office as the vice president of Nigeria on October 1, 1979.
Ekwueme brought class and panache to Nigerian politics. One of the few Nigerian politicians who had a “second address.”
He was incorruptible, as affirmed in December 1985 by Justice Sampson Uwaifo who headed a judicial tribunal set up by the military junta to try Second Republic politicians on corruption charges.
“Dr Alex Ekwueme’s wealth, in actual fact, had diminished by the time he was removed from office as vice president via a military coup,” Uwaifo said.
“I see no prima facie case being made here to warrant his trial for any offence known to law; and were he to be put on trial on the facts available, it would be setting a standard of morality too high even for saints in politics in a democracy to observe.”
Ekwueme was a quintessential democrat, an intellectual in politics, a national icon. His, like the late Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim, was politics without bitterness.
The gentleman and patriot that he was, he amply demonstrated by his actions both on and off the political turf that politics is not a dirty game played only by grimy characters.
Over the years, Ekwueme was a bridge-builder and stabilising political force in Nigeria who brought his enormous intellect to bear on the country’s politics. In and out of office, he invested his enormous intellectual and material resources on the country.
A determined politician with a steely resolve whenever he was convinced on the rightness of a political cause, he was a great leader, a national father-figure, who gave the military a bloody nose by leading the G34, a starry-eyed group of 34 intrepid political leaders who dared the murderous regime of Sani Abacha.
The G34 gave birth to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with Ekwueme as the first national chairman and later chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Despite the injustice meted out to him by the military cabal that hijacked not only the PDP but the entire democratic project, Ekwueme remained a faithful member of the PDP till he died. That is political fidelity.
His ideas and interventions greatly and positively shaped the country’s political fabric.
The most remarkable example of such eclectic disposition to national discourse is the present six-zone geo-political structure, which he championed at the 1994-95 constitutional conference to create a more equitable system.
He was one of Nigeria’s best, both in private and public life.
On a personal level, he lived a long, accomplished and impactful life. But that cannot be said of the Nigeria he left behind.
It is regrettable that 57 years after independence, there was no medical facility at home that could help at his most vulnerable moment.
It is good that the federal government will give him a state funeral. It is also heartwarming that many people and institutions, in appreciation of his contributions to Nigeria’s socio-political and economic wellbeing, are calling on the government to immortalise him.
But knowing Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme well, the best way to immortalise him is to keep his legacies aglow. That is Nigeria’s surest way out of its self-inflicted morass.