Sen. Chukwumerije dies @ 75

Chukwumerije, a former Chairman,
Senate Committee on Education, died on Sunday in a Turkish Hospital in Abuja at the age of 75. He was born Novemberv1939.

He was a three-time senator that represented Abia North, he was elected into the Senate in 2003. Chika Chukwumerije, son of the deceased said in a telephone interview that his father died of lung cancer at exactly 4.30 p.m., on Sunday.

“We are trying to organise some things; he died at exactly 4.30 p.m., this evening.
“He died here in Abuja and was surrounded by his friends before his last breath.

“He has been an inspiration in ways I cannot explain,’’ Chika said.
Chika said that burial arrangements would be communicated once it had been concluded. Chukwumerije, elected a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in April 2003, represented Abia North Senatorial District.

He served as minister of information in the
dying days of the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida and later served in the same capacity in the interim national government of Ernest Shonekan.
Sen. Chukwumerije was rumoured to have
slumped and died in 2014 after the legislator lost his return bid to the Senate in a PDP primary election.

The rumour was later described as the
handiwork of “a few ungodly and irresponsible individuals.”

In the Fourth Republic, Chukwumerije was
elected to the Senate on the Peoples Democratic Party’s platform, but he fell out of favor with the party’s leadership when he opposed the Third Term Agenda. Chukwumerije eventually decamped to the Progressive Peoples Alliance in 2006, and was reelected to the Senate on April 28, 2007.

Chukwumerije is divorced with seven
children.Chukwumerije studied economics at the University of Ibadan. Chukwumerije was reelected on the PDP platform in the April 2011 elections. His son Chika won a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing in Taekwondo. His father funded his training as well as some of the tournaments he has participated in.

His other son, Dikeogu Egwuatu Chukwumerije, is a writer and a performance poet. He also hosts the Abuja Literary Society (ALS)’s Night
of Spoken Words. He has written books like The African American, One Nigeria: The Birth and Evolution of an Idea, The Revolution Has No Tribe: Contemporary Poetry on African History, Culture and Society Co-written with Azuka Juachi Okonji, Strategic Love: Simple
Rules That Make Love Work and many others. He also did a tribute to the legendary Chinua Achebe titles ‘Nna Anyi, Is It True?’ after his demise.