Alex Ekwueme and the big ‘IF’! – By Tony Eluemunor

Alex Ekwueme is gone, but Nigeria is still on a long stretch of transition from military rule. It was not for nothing that the late President Yar’Adua promised in 2007, after he had just succeeded former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Aso Rock, to respect the rule of law. 

And its remarkable that this discussion is taking place as we mourn Dr. Alex Ekwueme. The gentlemanly Ekwueme would have set Nigeria in the right direction. 

In 2003, Chief James Ibori led a group of Governors to dump Obasanjo and give Ekwueme the PDP ticket to vie for the presidency.

They nearly triumphed; but we all know that they failed …due to several happenings that the public has yet to read about.

Its over a decade since that event. Now, all we will ever do is to wonder about that if of history; a great if. Its good to sit and hope that all will be well eventually. But I will always state the fact that we chose the worst among the available leading politicians among us to lead the march to democracy in 1999. If Ekwueme was denied the presidency in 1999 because the military top brass wanted to placate the Yoruba over the Abiola injustice, which was right, Nigeria should not have been cheated in 2003 by allowing the Obasanjo presidency to continue.

An Ekwueme presidency would have helped point Nigeria towards the right direction.

— 

.