Alex Ekwueme: The Man In The Arena With A Purpose
IN October 2012, I chaired the Committee that organised Dr. Alex Ekwueme’s 80th birthday ceremonies. On October 16, we organised an international colloquium on Nigerianfederalism:buildingonthe Ekwuemelegacy at the Thisday Dome Abuja—and this was the highpoint of the 80th birthday anniversary.
After some five years and three months, I am here today, at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko that has Alex Ekwueme’s imprimatur, to speak as we bid him farewell. For me, the loss is huge and the grief very deep. May his giant soul rest in peace!
Yes, Dr. (Chief) Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, GCON ( Ideaguatana Orumba) is dead. As it is usual with a moment like this, tributes from foes and friends will suffocate space. It is a fleeting moment of hyperboles that usually end on the Sunday of the outing service.
Thereafter, the deceased joins the list of the forgotten dead or occasionally but perfunctorily remembered in somber memorial events, while the living move on with their lives. It is the fate of all mortals but I pray that Ide’s shall be substantively different.
Ide was not God! He was human, with his own dose of human frailties and imperfections. But he was an exceptional human being. Tributes will pour in to celebrate Alex Ekwueme the architect, town planner and surveyor, lawyer, sociologist, historian, politician, philanthropist, Christian, husband, father and grandfather, technocrat, nationbuilder, statesman, tennis lover and player, among others.
Many will celebrate his uncommon intellect, his legendary character epitomised by integrity, his credentials as a thorough bred democrat and nationalistic federalist, or his humane, passionate commitment to people and his giant philanthropic strides.
Like the proverbial elephant and the blind men, many will describe and miss him for different reasons. Few humans have successfully juggled the demands of family, community, profession, and national service like Alex Ekwueme.
I have come today to join in celebrating Ideaguatanaorumba . But beyond the usual platitudes for an exceptionally eventful life, I want to devote this tribute as a message from Alex Ekwueme to all of us, the living. I was converted into a self-appointed apostle of Alex Ekwueme because of the message of his life. Growing up in this clime, the philanthropic exploits of the man better known around OAU, as “Ekwueme Oko” was news and ennobling.
As a pioneer student at Uga Boys Secondary School, one of Ekwueme’s beneficiaries, Cyprian Ifekanandu Okafor, was my classmate and he told many enchanting stories about this exceptional man. In August 1980 and as we were waiting for our JAMB results to go into the university, I was excited to join a crop of activist OAU students, which included Romanus Achusi (Isuofia), Chidi Ezeaguba (Nanka), among others, as foundation members of the Ekwueme Movement, and with Dr. Anene Uzuakpunwa as Coordinator. In 1981, I became the Secretary of NPN students’ wing at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), and later in 1982, the Chairman.