Ike Ekweremadu

Early life

Ike Ekweremadu was born in 1962 at Amachara Mpu in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State, and is of Igbo origin. He holds both Bachelors and master's degree in Law from the University of Nigeria, Nigeria and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1987. He also holds Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Law from the University of Abuja, Nigeria.

Political appointments

In 2002, Chief Ekweremadu was appointed Secretary to the Enugu State Government, before then he was Chairman of Aninri in 1997 and won the Best Local Government Chairman Award in Enugu State at the time. He was appointed the Chief of Staff of the Enugu State Government House.

Senatorial career

on April 12, 2003 he was elected to the Nigerian Senate. In September 2003, as Vice Chairman of the senate committee on Information, Chief Ekweremadu stated that the senate would make a serious investigation into allegations of bribery leveled by Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. Relations between Nasir el-Rufai and the senate continued to be hostile, and el-Rufai was eventually charged with corruption in 2008. In 2005, Ike Ekweremadu was beaten in the race for President of the Senate of Nigeria by Senator Kenechukwu Nnamani.

In July 2006, as spokesperson for the Southern Senators’ Forum, Ekweremadu denied charges that they had made an agreement to return power to the North in the 2007 elections. In September 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo asked the Senate to review a report by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that laid charges of fraud against Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. Ike Ekweremadu promised to establish a committee of inquiry whose report would be submitted to the Senate, although he noted that impeachment would be difficult since it would require a 2/3 majority.

Ekweremadu was returned in the 29 April 2007 Nigerian National Assembly election, and retained his position as deputy senate president. He was given the job of handing out committee chairmanship positions allocated to the southeast zone, making decisions that were unpopular with leaders such as Senator Chris Anyanwu, who failed to get the positions they wanted. In July 2007, Ekweremadu was instrumental in defusing objections to the controversial nomination of Ojo Maduekwe to a ministerial position.

When President Umaru Yar'Adua’s Principal Private Secretary, David Edevbie, was indicted in September 2009 in a British court for corruption and money laundering, Ekweremadu refused to take a position, stating that he did not know the facts. In September 2009, Ekweremadu was named co-chairman of a committee to conduct the primary elections for the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate for Anambra State.

Senatorial election, Enugu West 2011

Ekweremadu was reelected as Senator for Enugu West in the April 2011 elections, receiving 112,806 votes. The closest runner-up was the candidate of the Peoples for Democratic Change (PDC) party, Jackson Ezeoffor, who got 7,522 votes.

ECOWAS

In September 2009, he was appointed to lead the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ad hoc committee to would work for the return of constitutional order in the Niger Republic. He was elected First Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament and emerged the Speaker of the regional parliament in August 2011.