Standing Strong: Legislative Reforms, Third Term and Other Issues of the 5^th Senate By Ken Nnamani; InterPares Media Ltd, Lagos, Nigeria; 2021; 491pp

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

One man with a gavel changed the course of Nigerian history when on Tuesday, May 16, 2006, the third term bid of President Olusegun Obasanjo was defeated on the floor of the Nigerian Senate. Senate President Ken Nnamani presided over the momentous session in front of live TV.

The former Senate President has documented for posterity his tour of duty as the leader of Nigeria’s Fifth National Assembly in his book, Standing Strong: Legislative Reforms, Third Term and Other Issues of the 5^th Senate.

Born Kenechukwu Ugwu Nnamani on Tuesday, November 2, 1948, he had to travel well over 500 kilometres by road from Enugu, the capital of the old Eastern Region, to Ibadan, the capital of the old Western Region, to study for his Higher School Certificate at Ibadan Grammar School.

He took a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree in 1977 and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Ohio State University, Athens, USA.

After graduation, he wrote to as many as 55 companies in the United States for employment and got a job with the transnational company, Du Pont De Nemours International in Wilmington, Delaware, the USA in 1978 and was thenceforth given charge of the product distribution and industrial marketing activities of Du Pont in English-speaking West African countries that included Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Gambia, and Sierra Leone. In 1999, after 21 years of service, he left Du Pont to go into private business.

Ken Nnamani was elected into the senate in 2003 and later became the senate president with support mainly from Northern senators led by Senator Idris Kuta.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Amendment) Bill, 2006, that later became tagged as the Third Term Bill, proposed 116 amendments to the 1999 Constitution including an issue very dear to Senator Nnamani, to wit, creating a new state in the Southeast to put it at par with the other geo-political zones.

Ray Ekpu writes in the Foreword to Standing Strong, “The Constitution review was overwhelmingly rejected because of the third term clause. So, the baby was thrown away with the bathwater.”

Ken Nnamani has offered Nigerians and the world at large a truly historic book.

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist, and author.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.