Nnenna Elendu Ukeje

Background

Ukeje is from Alayi, Abia State and attended Federal Government Girls College, Owerri, Imo State. She also attended the University of Benin, Edo State before graduating from the University of Lagos with a bachelor's degree in education.

Prior to her political career, Ukeje enjoyed a successful career in the hotel management industry. Ukeje has stated that her passion for public service comes from her father, late Captain Elendu-Ukeje, who was a decorated pilot with the Nigerian Air Force and Nigerian Airways prior to his retirement. Her mother, Rosaline Elendu-Ukeje, served as Chief Judge of the Federal High Court prior to her retirement.

Political career

Ukeje's initial foray into politics garnered her first election in office in 2007 as the Representative for Bende Federal Constituency, Abia State under the People's Democratic Party (Nigeria). She was re-elected in 2011.

Ukeje is noted for her stance on diplomatic relations between African nations, particularly after incidents involving Nigerians in Togo and South Africa, respectively. She is also noted for infrastructure improvements in her native Alayi.

Advocacy

In June 2013, following a report of xenophobic reaction by some South African citizens and public officers towards Nigerians who are living in South Africa, Ukeje made a spirited effort and call-to-action to the South African government, through the Nigerian government, to warn its citizens against any action that could ruin the friendly diplomatic relationship that exists between Nigeria and South Africa. Recently, following UK government's announcement of a cash bond policy in which visa applicants from a certain countries including Nigeria would be impelled to deposit £3,000 cash for visa procurement into the UK, Ukeje rose to challenge the policy which she described, in a newspaper report, as "totally discriminatory and unacceptable and a target at non-white Commonwealth”. She further stressed that the House of Representatives of Nigeria, where she is serving as the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, would take a critical look at the policy as it affects Nigerians and come up with a way forward. Ukeje is one of the active voices in Nigeria's House of Representatives whose views on national issues are often adjudged as the true assessment of the state of the nation and the direction suitable for the progress of Nigeria.

She once drew a correlation between U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election acceptance speech and Nigeria's oil economy in which she noted that the US President had tacitly signalled a warning to Nigeria in his speech that the US, who is one of the leading importers of Nigeria oil, would reduce its oil imports. Ukeje used the instance of the statement by the American President to make a frantic call to her colleagues at the National Assembly to expedite the passage into law of a Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which has been before the Nigerian National Assembly for a very long time and has been generating a lot of hot debates in the public domain such that many social commentators and politicians have expressed fear that further delay in the passage of the bill could have a negative impact on Nigeria's economy.

Ukeje has remained at the forefront of activities that promote the well-being of every Nigerian, particularly those whose improvement are dependent on the action of Nigerian missions in foreign lands. This resolve in ensuring that Nigerian government agencies and missions perform at utmost best was behind the decision by Ukeje, in concert with her other members in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to visit Nigeria embassies and High Commissions in making sure that the diplomats and employees of Nigerian missions abroad are responsive to the plight of Nigerians who live abroad, friendly to Nigerians and other intending visitors to Nigeria, the funds appropriated to Nigerian missions are judiciously expended by the Heads of the missions and to examine the state of the property owned and rented by Nigerian government abroad.

Similar concern for the protection of the dignity and promotion of the well-being of NIgerians was demonstrated by Ukeje and her committee members when they invited the Head of the National Hajj Commission and some executives of the commission before a panel in the National Assembly over the death of 44 Nigerians in the 2012 Hajj pilgrimage. The Committee on Foreign Affairs headed by Ukeje termed the incident "worrisome and unacceptable" when they were questioning members of the Hajj commission on the disaster.