From far away India came the news, on September 6, 2011 that the first Speaker of the House of Representatives under our presidential system of government, Barrister Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, had passed on. He had been sick and was flown there for treatment, but unfortunately, he could not survive.

Thus passed into history, the life of an eminent Nigerian politician, who participated in the nurturing of our democratic culture during the two periods of post-military democracy. Chief Ume-Ezeoke burst into the political limelight when he emerged as the Speaker of the House of Representatives after the general elections of 1979. It was the first (and only time since then) that the head of an arm of our bicameral National Assembly would emerge from a political party that did not win the majority of seats in the parliament.

The reason for this unusual phenomenon was not farfetched. After the 1979 general elections, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which won the presidency and majority of the seats in both the Senate and House of Representatives could not fulfill the constitutionally required conditions to form government alone. It went into what was known as an accord with the third-placed Nigerian People’s Party (NPP), led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in a power-sharing arrangement. Even though the accord later collapsed because the NPN was accused of poaching members of its coalition partner, Ume-Ezeoke kept his post till 1983 when another election was held.

He thus played a vital role in ensuring that the resumed democratic experiment after 13 years of military rule foreshadowed by a civil war could stand, at least for a few years. Given the fierce litigation and press pressure mounted by the second-placed Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, many were afraid that if the winning party could not form a government the nation might be plunged right back into military rule only a few months after a three-year transitional journey.

During the years of the return of the military between 1983 and 1999, Ume-Ezeoke remained largely in political obscurity. However, after the 2003 general elections, he made a come-back, this time on the platform of the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP). He emerged as the National Chairman of the party in an election in 2006, where he beat the better fancied Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN). While he held that position, the presidential candidate of the party for the 2007 election, retired Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, picked him as his running mate for the poll which Alhaji Umaru Yar’ Adua of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won.

Ume-Ezeoke got into controversy, when he led a faction of his party to take up a “government of national unity” offer from the PDP Federal Government, while the party’s candidate, Buhari, still had a petition against Yar’ Adua’s election at the tribunal. His action had the support of major stakeholders, especially the ANPP governors and ex-governors. Buhari eventually lost patience with them and went out of the party to form his own Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) with which he ran the 2011 presidential election.

Though Ume-Ezeoke’s decision was criticised in some quarters as a pursuit of self-interest, his supporters justified it on the ground that he had always put the stability of our democracy above partisan interests. He thus left a conservative legacy which will be remembered in the annals of Nigeria’s political history.

Born in Amichi in the Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State 76 years ago, Ume-Ezeoke had his early education at St Eugenia’s School, Amichi between 1943 and 1951. He later read law at the Holborn College of Legal Education in London between 1962 and 1966.

He will he laid to rest in his home-town, Amichi this Saturday, October 15, 2011. His funeral rites started on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 with a valedictory session in the House of Representatives, Abuja, which was attended by members of both wings of the National Assembly and top government functionaries.

May his soul rest in peace.