The meeting was fixed for 1:30pm at one of the beautiful hotels that dot the beautiful city of Lagos.
Distinguished Senator Ken Nnamani, however, got into the room some five minutes later. Being a perfect gentleman and understanding the importance of time, the first thing he did, even before tucking himself into an adjacent seat, was to tender his profuse and profound apologies.
From there, Nigeria’s former No. 3 man and one of the most illustrious of all the Senate Presidents produced by our country cracked a couple of jokes to further soften and enlighten the atmosphere.
Aging gracefully and attired in a navy blue South-South attire; of course, with his trademark burgundy cap perching neatly on his head, he delved into the raison d’etre for the meeting.
Unarguably one of the best to have successfully led the Senate, avoiding the then well known banana peel and also insulating his tenure from unnecessary controversies, Nnamani just completed work on his first major book.
Entitled Standing Strong – Legislative Reforms, Third Term And Other Issues Of The 5th Senate, the must-read book, especially for students and followers of Nigerian politics and some of the major players, contains all of 491 pages. Beautifully printed and packaged, it has a total of 14 chapters, with a foreword written by journalism great, Ray Ekpu.
Among the chapters that will astound and amaze many are The Third Term Naysayers, The Corruption Paradox, The Crash, Third Term, Yar’Adua As An Afterthought, Third Term Casualties and Policy Fallouts Of Third Term Crash.
Obviously bound to ruffle feathers, especially as the public presentation beckons (on Thursday, October 21, 2021, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja), the author who back then represented one of the senatorial districts in Enugu maintains that, that’s not the idea. Rather, it’s to “document my experiences as President of the 5th Senate and also to serve as a guide to the upcoming generation.”
Extrapolating, he says the book “is not a combative piece of writing”, adding that “no abusive language” or “gutter language which I don’t encourage” was accommodated therein.
On one of the essential thrusts of the book, he says it’s that “we should always follow our constitution.”
So, why is he just releasing the book? “It’s not easy to write”, he begins, before also confessing that “many of us, including me, are lazy to write.” The beauty, however, is that “the book is now out and written in a simple language… You don’t need a dictionary to read and understand it… It’s basically an attempt, my own effort at documenting what happened in our time… I also have evidence and documents to back up everything I wrote… Other people have been telling the story of Third Term and now is my own time to sing my own song.”
A very, very brave and courageous man, hear him on his relationship with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose alleged third term moves he scuttled and shattered: “Obasanjo is not my enemy, but he’s also not my fantastic friend!”
Finally, he explains how he arrived at the title – Standing Strong – thus: “It’s all about the ability of people to stand firm, if not, our country would have been going through what countries like Guinea, Mali and co are going through… If our set didn’t do what God gave us the will to do, it would have been another story… Which is why we must always follow the Constitution and don’t try to truncate it…”
As we made for the door, after a memorable session, Nnamani fires the last shot: “I will do what I did again! Better to stand with the people than the party.”
What a man! What a leader! Still STANDING STRONG after so many years as Nigeria’s Senate President.
NB: Watch out for my review of the book, STANDING STRONG – Legislative Reforms, Third Term And Other Issues Of The 5th Senate