What is the appropriate title for a public office holder who is stealing from the poor and buying mansions across Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom? A thief or chief, or both? For years, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has been parading himself as if he doesn’t poop like the rest of the corrupt political class in Nigeria.
What is the appropriate title for a public office holder who is stealing from the poor and buying mansions across Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom? A thief or chief, or both? For years, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has been parading himself as if he doesn’t poop like the rest of the corrupt political class in Nigeria.
Thanks to Sahara Reporters, the wind has blown and we have seen a fraction of the dirty butt of “thief-chief” Senator Ike Ekweremadu. If Ekweremadu is so greedy to have corruptly acquired 22 houses, imagine, just imagine who much cash he has stashed in safe havens abroad and “shadow” bank accounts in Nigeria.
Thief-chief Senator Ekweremadu is a member of Nigeria's thieving Senate and he has been second-in-command for close to 11 years. For more than 10 years, Senator Ike Ekwremadu wined and dined with a gang of successive national leaders that saw corruption as an ideology. For over 18 years, he belonged to the political class the presided over the period that the locust ate (and are still eating) in Nigeria.
Before delving into politics, Ike Ekweremadu was an Associate Lecturer at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. His position as the pioneer Chairman of Aninri Local Government from 1997-1998 marked his entry into politics. Prior to joining the “Thieves' Guild” at the Nigerian National Assembly, he was a modest man. His greed grew as he got intoxicated with political power while serving as the Chief of Staff, Enugu State Government House, 1999-2001; and the Secretary to the Enugu State Government from 2001-2003.
It was during his service at Enugu State that he started stealing from the government to give to the poor, namely himself. Soon, he was no longer poor, but he continued to seal. After he joined the Thieves' Guild at the National Assembly, his level and scope of stealing gathered enough speed and momentum to reach a corruption escape velocity. Since then, Senator Ekweremadu has been so entrenched in corruption and corrupt acts that his greed has also grown geometrically.
Now, the thief-chief-Senator Ekweremadu owns 22 properties, worth millions of dollars. This is even as poverty is ravaging his constituents in Mpu in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State that sent him to Abuja. Ashamed of his corrupt enrichment, the thief-chief-Senator started omitting these illicitly acquired properties in his asset declaration forms.
For conceptual clarification, the “Thieves' Guild” at the Nigerian National Assembly consists of members with no legislative or policy formulation skill set. The only requirement to belong to the Thieves' Guild, is loyalty to the leadership and/or baggage of corrupt acts from the previous position such as governor of a state. The guild is an excellent arena for senators that were elected with the hope that they will clean up the rot in the Assembly to acquire the thieving skills. Senator Shehu Sani is the current case study in the 8th Senate.
Ekweremadu’s-linked corruption is just a part of massive corruption in the National Assembly. The Nigerian Senate has been opaque under every leadership that Senator Ike Ekweremadu has orchestrated starting with David Mark and now Saraki. This corrupt leadership has vehemently refused to make any shift to transparency. The Nigerian Senate like the rest of public and private institutions in Nigeria is trapped in high-corruption equilibrium, or, to put it differently, are pervasively corrupt.
Ekweremadu’s role in the National Assembly is simply to ensure that a gang of friends and close associates enrich themselves through their connections, buying properties in Nigeria and around the world. He does the dirty works for Senator Bukola Saraki. He surrounded himself with corrupt former governors that have migrated to the Senate after squandering the wealth of their states. This endemic corruption typified by Ekweremadu’s illicit amassing of wealth is an obstacle to good governance in Nigeria. It weakens democratic institutions and lowers productivity, undermining economic development.
This uncovering of Senator Ekweremadu’s corrupt enrichment is an empirical demonstration that bribery and graft are often the outgrowths of a deeper ‘culture of corruption’ which has proved disconcertingly resilient in the face of the anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria. Ekweremadu’s corruption made the election of Saraki as Senate President possible. Ekweremadu’s corrupt tactics have ensured that the financial transactions of the Nigerian Senate have remained opaque.
It is safe to attribute the causes of endemic corruption in Nigeria to weak legal enforcement and the ability of corrupt tribal entrepreneurs to hide under the cover of victimization of their tribe to enrich themselves. PDP’s defense of Ike Ekwremmadu’s exposed corrupt enrichment was that since every politician in Nigeria has taken bribes, the APC government and prosecutors must have targeted him for political reasons. They want Nigerians to be sympathetic to the thief-chief because he is a member of the opposition political party.
The self-reinforcing cowardice of Nigerians that takes for granted the fact that these vested interests are too powerful and too corrupt that they can say and do anything to manipulate our primordial sentiments has to stop. Here is the danger, because corruption is widespread in Nigeria, a range of corruption beliefs emerge and interact with existing social norms such as the norm of “chop I chop”.
This democratization of corruption is a serious danger in the political life of Nigerian democracy. To save ourselves and our democracy, we have to come together and rescue the country from the “thief-chiefs” from the Local government level to the Presidency. If Nigeria is to be saved, the endemic presence of corruption in APC and PDP should not be accepted as part of our culture. Rather, it must be rejected
By sending Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his co thief-chiefs to the Nigerian National Assembly, the long-suffering citizens of Nigeria are not getting the dividends of democracy and good governance. But surely, they are getting what they voted for: waste, corruption, incompetence, and showmanship. The 2019 election is an opportunity for Nigerians to take back their country from these thieves parading themselves as chiefs. Together, we can.
You can email Churchill at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @churchillnnobi
