Lady Nwanneka Ekweremadu
History books, literatures and the Holy Bible are replete with examples of what ignoble or positive difference women around power can make.
Jezebel’s wickedness and greed rendered Ahab’s regime irredeemably bloody. Potiphar’s lecherous wife had God-fearing Joseph thrown into jail. Bloodthirsty Herodias clamped John into prison and subsequently set up her husband, Herod Antipas, to offer John’s head to her daughter on a platter because of John’s opposition to her incestuous marriage. Queen and Queen Mother Athalia almost wiped out all heirs to the throne.
In the literatures too, Lady Macbeth’s inordinate ambition in William Shakespeare’s drama, “Macbeth” is the architect of Macbeth’s tragic fall. Conversely, there were also the virtuous whose mouths drooped with wisdom and kindness. The wise intervention of Abigail, wife of the affluent Nabal, not only saved her wealthy but foolish and greedy husband from ferocious destruction in the hands of David, but also turned David away from bloodguilt.
David later married her. There is also Pilate’s wife who tried, though unsuccessfully, to dissuade Pontius Pilate from condemning an innocent Jesus to death. Queen Esther brushed aside her maximum opulence and comfort to fast and utilise her marriage to King Ahazarus to save the Jews from imminent genocide in Persia- at the risk of her own life.
For the Deputy President of the Senate and Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, there is no doubt that he married the right woman. Without prejudice to his personal pedigrees, even the Deputy President of the Senate publicly admits that Lady Nwanneka Ekweremadu is God’s uncommon jewel and the virtuous woman behind the Ikeoha’s phenomenon.
Born September 10, 1966, the pretty and graceful woman who holds Bachelor of Education (Accountancy/Economics) Degree in Education and MBA in Accountancy can best be described as the Deputy President of Senate’s version of Ulysses’ Telemachus. Remember that Alfred Lord Tennyson poem, “Ulysses”? Of Telemachus, Ulysses says: “This is my son Telemachus/ To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle/ Well loved of me, discerning to fulfill/This labour, by slow prudence / Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere/ Of common duties, decent not to fail/ In offices of tenderness, and pay/ Meet adoration to my household gods/ When I am gone. He does his work. I mine.”
Thus, while the Deputy Senate President is busy with the affairs of state, Lady Ekweremadu ensures that their constituency outreach arm, the Ikeoha Foundation where she is a trustee delivers on their vision of unusual transformation. Definitely not the type that throws her weight about, she is one woman that has proved again and again that one can be humble and kind in the midst of prosperity. Her words are healing. She, like her husband, believes that every human being is entitled to some dignity intrinsic in his/her humanity and should be lent a helping hand rather than a bashing tongue.
Under her close watch, therefore, the foundation has literally given a new lease of life to countless women, widows and youths. For instance, the Ikeoha Women Agro-Training/Youth Skill Acquisition Programme funded an agro-training provided by the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Abia State for 750 women in Enugu West Senatorial District.
Ikeoha Foundation has provided further training for 50 graduate engineers at the Science Equipment Development Centre, Akwuke, Enugu to make them more marketable. There is also the ongoing ICT Training Scheme for youths in computer labs it has provided across the Senatorial District. The Ikeoha Quiz Competition has made giant strides in reviving reading culture and competitive learning among secondary schools in the Enugu West.
An average of 150 schools have participated in the competition since the maiden edition in 2009. The winning schools are rewarded with multi-million naira educational equipment, while members of the winning teams who gain admission into the university receive automatic cash awards of N500,000 each.
Meanwhile, its main scholarship programme, the Ikeoha Foundation Scholarship Scheme has since 2004/2005 academic sessions awarded multi-million naira scholarships and bursaries to 1,577 students.
Perhaps, Ikeoha Foundation’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the Ikeoha Foundation Adult Literacy Programme. It is aimed at eradicating mass illiteracy and gain First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC). UNESCO underscored the imperative of literacy in a statement by its Director-General, Irina Bokova on the 2013 Literacy Day. According to the statement “Literacy is much more than an educational priority – it is the ultimate investment in the future and the first step towards all the new forms of literacy required in the twenty-first century.”
The programme, which is monitored and supervised by the Enugu State Agency for Mass Literacy, currently runs in 22 centres in Enugu West and has graduated 426 adult learners who have sat for their FSLC exams, while 1,200 learners are currently enrolled. The number is bound to shoot up with new intakes for the 2013/2014 academic year.
All put together, Lady Ekweremadu’s 47 years on earth have truly been a pillar of support and blessing to mankind. Not only has she and Ikeoha worked their way up to national reckoning from a humble beginning, by a dint of determination, hard work, destiny, and grace, hers has been a life of service and sacrifice.
As the Proverbs would say, “Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.” For many that have encountered her, she’s a God-given gift to mankind and is really worth celebrating.
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