Chukwumerije: Footprints of a Legislator Par Excellence

His vision at the Senate was to “seek the welfare of the people – especially the weakest and the poorest – by promoting people-oriented projects.” It was also to take parliamentary positions which would “enthrone and sustain a truly democratic and transparent polity founded on strict compliance with the constitution and be held accountable by a vigorous parliament, a vibrant press, and an independent judiciary”.
So when death came calling on Sunday, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, was on his last lap of as a member of the nation’s upper legislative chamber. Although he did not contest in the last general election due to failure to secure the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket for the Senate, Chukwumerije, was indeed one of the nation’s finest legislators. He was until his death the Chairman, Senate Committee on Education.
He represented Abia North Senatorial District of Abia State in the Senate. He was noted for activism in legislative matters and was vocal on issues affecting the polity, particularly his ethnic group, Ndigbo. He was the voice of the voiceless in the Nigerian Senate.
Those who knew the late legislator say his hands-on approach to challenges was his definitive style over the years. Whether as Biafra Director of Information and Propaganda during the civil war, as journalist with the Daily Times and Publisher of Afriscope magazine in the seventies; as Minister of Information in the nineties and as Senator since 2003, Chukwumerije always broke new grounds in whatever he did.
Apart from being an ardent messenger of Abia North senatorial constituency, he also distinguished himself as a representative of Ndigbo and a committed Nigerian patriot.
Among the bills the late Senator sponsored at the Senate are a bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the Corporate Social Responsibility Commission; a bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the Anti-Torture Commission; a bill for an Act for the establishment of the Environmental Pollution Tax Commission and a bill to provide for the establishment, Development, Operation, Maintenance, Management and Administration of the Nigeria Development Zones for matters connected therewith.
In one of his numerous lectures titled, 2015: Before Us lies an open grave, and delivered in October 10, 2013, the late Chukumerije concluded by saying that power shift and the emergence of a national two-party structure have triggered a process of re-alignment of political/social interests which will anchor Nigeria’s ruling formations for the foreseeable future. He warned that “Ndigbo must effectively key into this dialectical process now or continue to be sidelined. In the fast flowing eddy of Nigeria’s social/economic development, an indefinite sideline of a major ethnic group like Ndigbo is political death”.
An ardent advocate of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction, Chukwumerije in the lecture posited that Ndigbo must produce the next Nigerian President after President Goodluck Jonathan, adding however that the loud declaration of this intent is not in itself an abracadabra and magic wand. “Ndigbo must hit the political road work now for its attainment in our multi-cultural society and in the new two-party system,” he stated.