Ojo Maduekwe (1945-2016)

THE sudden death of the former Minister of Transport, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, shortly after arriving in the country from the United States of America, shocked many Nigerians. The demise of the consummate politician, diplomat, legislator, activist, administrator and scholar at the age of 71 took the nation by surprise and the tributes trailing his passage attest to the respect he enjoyed all over Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari, in a moving eulogy, described Maduekwe as an ardent believer in the unity of Nigeria who gave his all to that pursuit. He recalled that the late minister was a relent­less believer in citizen diplomacy whose life challenged all Nigeri­ans to project a positive image for the country.

Chief Maduekwe was born in Ohafia in Ohafia Local Govern­ment Area of Abia State. He was educated at the University of Ni­geria, Nsukka where he obtained a degree in Law in 1972 and was called to the Bar the following year.

He was in 1983 elected into the National Assembly, a short-lived parliament that was dissolved by the military coup d’etat by the then Major-General Muham­madu Buhari on December 31 of the same year. He returned to the limelight in 1988 following his election into the Constituent As­sembly. Ever since, he has been in almost all Nigerian administra­tions and in the most important political organisations.

After his service in the Constitu­ent Assembly in 1990, he was ap­pointed the Adviser to the Chair­man of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a position he held till 1992. Between 1993 and 1995, he was the Adviser to the Minis­ter of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the National Bound­aries Adjustment Commission (1997-98).

In 1998, he was elected a sena­tor in the Third Republic. In 1999, he was appointed Federal Min­ister of Culture and Tourism, a position he held till 2000 when he was named Federal Minister of Transport. One of his ideas to tackle the country’s transporta­tion problems was to sell the idea of riding bicycles to work to Ni­gerians. He had apparently seen millions of Europeans, Chinese, Indians and other peoples trying to save both the planet and fuel by riding bicycles to their work­places and wanted it replicated in the country.

Maduekwe was Presidential Adviser on Legal and Constitu­tional Affairs between 2003 and 2005. He was the National Sec­retary of the PDP from 2005 to 2007. From there, he became Ni­geria’s Foreign Minister, a posi­tion he held till 2010. In 2011, he was appointed the

deputy director of the Jona­than-Sambo PDP Presidential Campaign which led to the elec­tion of President Goodluck Jon­athan. He was later named the Nigerian Ambassador to Canada and he served enthusiastically in this position until he returned to the country last year.

The late ex-minister had a gift of bringing people together and building consensus on thorny issues. Indeed, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which had been paralysed by cri­ses since it lost last year’s presi­dential election, deeply mourned the exit of Maduekwe. He was the secretary of the PDP Board of Trustees and was widely re­garded as one capable of bring­ing the contending factions in the party together.

Nigerians will always remember Maduekwe for his forthrightness and his nationalistic approach to politics. His unshaken com­mitment to the Nigerian project often got him into trouble with his Igbo kinsmen for his failure to support their agitation for an Igbo president. In him, Nigeria lost a true nationalist and patri­ot. May his soul rest in peace.