Ekweremadu’s Removal Will Divide Nigeria – Archbishop Chukwuma cautions Buhari

The Anglican ArchBishop of the Enugu Province, Most Rev Dr. Emmanuel Chukwuma on Monday urged the President Muhammadu Buhari led government to desist from further plot to remove the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu.

The All Progressives Congress, APC, led administration had continued to rue the emergence of Ekweremadu.


Speaking to journalists on the sideline of the town hall meeting organized by the Federal Ministry of Information in Enugu, Chukwuma also insisted that “Nigerias is negotiable because people are wounded; people are being sidelined and this is what is causing this spate of bombings by Avengers and all these people who are agitators.

“The more you make Nigerians to know that they are part of the government and receive the social amenities and care, then there will be no need for us to talk about restructuring.

“Restructuring will surely be done because the way things are going, it has to be restructured. South-East is the only
zone that has five states. You have to restructure because without restructuring there will be marginalization.”

“We need to know‎ that Nigerians are Nigerians; to keep Nigeria as one is a task that must be done, but Nigerians must be carried along without any part being neglected in appointments, in infrastructure, and even when you
see how they appoint some South-East people into government, it does not translate to infrastructural development. It does not.”

He added that “this town hall meeting is an opening for the Minister to tell the President that we are not happy; we need to be carried along, we need to be recognized.

“But we appeal to our brothers, let us be patient and see what will happen and this town hall meeting should not just be a jamboree, it should be studied for implementation and action to take place as
soon as possible.”

On Ekweremadu, he noted that “What we are saying is that APC should not be afraid of Ekweremadu; Ekweremadu is a very simple developing senator and out of all the senators in the South East, Ekweremadu is the most, I must say, loved, hard-working senator that APC can make use of to develop Nigeria.

“We want to also express that it is unfortunate that the governor of Imo State has continued to insult him and we say that this is not right, he should be called to order by the APC because Ekweremadu was not elected by the APC and election in the senate was not done by governors.

“So, if a senator is going to survive in the senate, that senator must come to pay homage to the leading senator in
the South-East.

“The governor of Imo State should tread with caution, if he is an Igbo man, otherwise he is a betrayer. I‎ want to call him to order that if he continues this way, the Igbos will deny him.

“Ekweremadu should be left alone to do his work, he has been elected constitutionally as Deputy Senate President and nobody can‎ remove him there. If they do that, it means that this government doesn’t want the Igbos, then you are calling for its secession from Nigeria because that is the high ranking position we have and we are
all behind him and he has been performing, and he should be left to perform.‎”