TRIBUTE: Sen. Ayogu Eze, Former Senate Spokesperson Who Rose From News Reporter To Ranking Senator (2024)

• Ayogu Eze was a reporter with The Guardian Newspaper
• He rose from pioneer PDP State Secretary to Senate Spokesperson after winning Enugu North Senatorial District seat in 2007
• Eze was confirmed dead by his first son Kenechukwu on April 25, 2024

For the people of Enugu North Senatorial zone of Enugu state, the Senator Ayogu Eze remained the most vocal, outspoken and visible senator of the senatorial district since its creation in 1999.

In any case, his death has arguably created a big vacuum in the political spectrum in the state at large and Enugu North zone in particular.

For only Senator who has attracted a working federal presence in the zone, Senator Ayogu Eze is a towering political figure in the zone by all its and purposes.

Early life

Ayogu Eze(23 November 1958 – 25 April 2024) was born on November 23, 1958 to the family of….in Umuida community, Igbo-Eze North local government area of Enugu state. Arising from a humble background,

Education

In his desire to acquire formal education, Senator Ayogu Eze attended the Institute of Management and Technology, IMT Enugu, where he obtained Higher National Diploma inMass Communication.

He, however, proceeded toInternational Institute for Journalism, IIJ Berlin, Germany, where he graduated on top of the G55 student stream, comprising working journalists from about 14 African countries.

His unquenchable and unbridled hunger for education led him to also studied for a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from theUniversity of Lagos, after which he successfully attended the executive education programmes of theHarvard Kennedy School of Government, where he studied “Leadership for the 21st Century: chaos, conflict and courage”.

Ayogu Eze also attendedSaïd Business Schoolat theUniversity of Oxford, where he studied “The Oxford Programme on Negotiation” as well as theJudge Business Schoolat theUniversity of Cambridge, where the focus of study was “Leadership in Parliamentary Oversight Programme”.

Marital life

Senator Eze is married to his beautiful wife, Nkechi Ayogu and were blessed with children including his first son Kenechkwu and his daughter Lotachukwu ( a Uk-trained Law graduate).

Journalism Career

Having acquired journalism education, Eze had a very active journalism career, working as a reporter and staff writer with the prestigiousTeam of the newspaper’s features desk before being deployed to head the Guardian Express, an evening paper from the stable, where he broke the news of the deportation of an intellectual and a critic of the military government, Patrick Wilmot, by the then Nigerian military government of GeneralIbrahim Babangida.

Eze later headed the Advance Desk of the newspaper, charged with producing the first edition of The Guardian newspaper, circulated mainly in the eastern and northern parts of the country.

By and large, in 1989, he moved to editorial department of the Platform Magazine, published by late Dr.Chuba OkadigboinLagos which he left in 1991 to join yet another flagship of the journalism profession, this time in the magazine sector.

Nevertheless, he joined theNewswatchmagazine, the then Nigeria most prestigious magazine, as Associate Editor in 1991.

He finally left there in 1992 to join theEnugu State governmentas Special Adviser in General Duties to GovernorOkwesilieze Nwodo. After that government was overthrown by GeneralSani Abachain November 1992, Sen. Eze went into the private sector, trying his hand at the produce trade and the real estate business.

Political career

Senator Ayogu Eze had a successful and uneventful political career. In a career that spanned for more than a quarter of a century, Senator Eze could be safely be referred to a successful political juggernaut.

In any case, at the threshold of the return of politics in 1998, he became a pioneer nationalex officiomember of the then newly born political party, thePeoples Democratic Party, PDP. When the new party began to form her state structures, Sen. Eze moved down to his home state ofEnugu, in Nigeria’s south eastern area, to join hands in midwifing the party in the state.

Eze contested and won the position of state secretary, becoming the party’s pioneer state secretary. The PDP won the election in Enugu as in many other states in the country in the 1999 general election. The new governor, Dr.Chimaroke Nnamaniappointed Sen. Eze into his cabinet in 1999, making him the commissioner for Information and Culture.

In 2001, he was redeployed to the newly created Ministry of Culture and Tourism but after his heroic effort in the governor’s successful reelection bid in 2003, the new ministry was remerged with the Information ministry to create yet a new Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.

Nevertheless, in another cabinet shakeup in 2006, he was dropped from the cabinet but was called back in 2007 to serve as Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Affairs, a position he held till he was elected to the Nigerian Senatein 2007.

In the Senate, he was appointed chairman of the senate committee on Information and Media, making him the official spokesman of the senate. For the eight years he spent in the senate, he was a member of the Constitution Drafting and Amendment Committee that made some novel changes to Nigeria’s 1999 constitution.

In 2011, against all odds, he re-contested for the Senate seat of his district and recorded a landslide victory against his opponents in the race. After his reelection to the senate in 2011, he was appointed chairman of the committee on works.

Eze also served as a member of committees on Police Affairs, National Planning, Marine Transport and Federal Character & Inter-Government Affairs.

It has been said that Sen. Eze was one of the visible figures in the Senate, making comments, explaining issues and presenting certain critical matters during Senate sessions.

Records showed that Eze competed successfully to be reelected Senator for Enugu North Senatorial District on the PDP platform in the April 2011 elections. He polled 86,220 votes, beating Mike Ajogwu of theLabour Partywho got 27,139 votes.

The former senator nursed the ambition of running for the governor ofEnugu Statein the 2015 general elections under the umbrella of thePDP. However, he lost the primary election to the incumbent governor of the state Rt HonIfeanyi Ugwuanyi.The primary election which was riddled with controversies ended in series of legal actions. However, he lost both at the Appeal Courtand at the Supreme Court.

Defection to All Progressives Congress

In August, 2018 preparatory for the 2019 general elections, Sen. Ayogu decamped to All Progressives Congress, APC.

In the 2019 general elections,Sen. Eze contested the 2019 governorship election under the platform of the All Progressives Congress,APC but withdrew from the election when the electoral umpire, theIndependent National Electoral Commission, INEC, omitted his name from the final list of candidates for the election, in the aftermath of intractable contrived intra-party legal tussle.

Again, Sen. Eze headed to the electoral tribunal to contest his exclusion from the election even after the court had restored his name as the party’s Bona Fide candidate but was prevailed upon to stay the matter by traditional rulers and political leaders fromEnugu State. He once again lost the guber election to Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi who was running for his second tenure.

Titles and Honours

In 2012, he was decorated with one of Nigeria’s most prestigious national honours, theCommander of the Order of the Niger, CON.

Senator Eze also held the following chieftaincy titles:

• Ebube Dike of Ogruteland, conferred on him by his Ogrute clan in April 1993 in his home local government area ofIgbo Eze North.
• Okwulora of Umuozzi, bestowed on him by late Igwe J. O. Mamah, Ohabuenyi of Umuozzi in April 1993, also inIgbo Eze North Local Government Area.
• Eze Chinaza Ekpere of Umumba Ndi Agu, conferred on him by late Igwe Joseph Chibuko of Umumba Ndi Agu,Ezeagu Local Government Area, Enugu State in 2009.
• Odezulu Igbo of Unadu, conferred on him by Igwe Barnabas Okechukwu Agbaji, Enyi 1 of Unadu Kingdom ofIgbo Eze South Local Government Area, Enugu State in 2014.

Recent Federal appointment

On May 10, 2023, the Senate confirmed his appointment alongside others as Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) Federal Commissioners.

Others confirmed as Federal Commissioners of RMAFC included; Peter Opara, Hauwa Umar Aliyu, Rakiya Tanko Haruna, Ismail Mohammed and Kolade Abimbola.

Health challenges

WITHIN NIGERIA findings showed that Sen. Ayogu Eze has been bedridden for quite some time now. During his daughter’s marriage some months ago, he was said to be absent due to his ill-health.

Death

Eze died at a hospital inAbuja, on 25 April 2024, at the age of 65. Since death, he has received many tributes from various political allies including the governor of the state, Peter Mbah, among others.