By Tony Edike
ENUGU—DEPUTY Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday, descended heavily on some individuals, who recently accused him of nursing gubernatorial ambition, describing them as ‘political jobbers’ seeking to derail the peace in the state.
Ekweremadu denied discussing the issue with anybody, either in the state or outside, saying that he never contemplated venturing into the governorship race and wondered why some people have continued to peddle such smearing campaign.
He said that he has not constituted a campaign machinery for the purpose, as according to him “incumbent Governor Sullivan Chime’s shoes were too big for mine to fit in at this time”.
He said, “let me state clearly that Ike Ekweremadu, which is myself is not running for governorship of Enugu State in 2011. I have not asked anybody to campaign for me, I have not told anybody that I am running, I have not said that I am running and I am not running.
Secondly, some people are not interested in the peace we have had in the past two years since Governor Chime came and they believe that they can only benefit in the atmosphere of discord and unnecessary rivalry between myself and the Governor and that is why they have embarked on this campaign, believing that with such quarrel, money will be spent.
There are some people that believe that they have to destroy others for them to grow.
Frankly people expect politicians to always behave in a particular way. When the chips are down you owe nobody any apology to contest or not, even placing a disclaimer notice now wont affect your future decision on the governorship race. your are successful as a politician and should concentrate on your job. Such responses or disclaimer might send the wrong signal. No leader wants to be seen as vulnerable and of weak character…always silence is golden
Why not? Why don’t you want to run? You are amply qualified. You have Masters in Law, You were Chief of Staff to Gov. Nnamani, and by 2011 you would have done 8 years in the Senate. I see why not. I’ll encourage you to go for the Governorship of Enugu State if you believe you can do a better job than the incumbent. It is about service.