Enyinnaya Abaribe
Senate Minority Leader
In office
2 July 2019 – May 2022
Succeeded byPhilip Aduda
Senator for Abia South
Assumed office
5 June 2007
Preceded byAdolphus Wabara
Deputy Governor of Abia State
In office
29 May 1999 – 7 March 2003
GovernorOrji Uzor Kalu
Succeeded byChima Nwafor
Personal details
Born (1955-03-01) 1 March 1955
Aba, Eastern Region, British Nigeria (now in Abia State, Nigeria)
Political partyPeoples Democratic Party
SpouseFlorence Morris
Children3

Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe (born 1 March 1955) is a Nigerian politician who was elected to the Abia-South Senatorial District of Abia State in the Senate of Nigeria in April 2007.[1] He holds the title Nwadiohanma Ngwa. Enyinnaya is an outspoken senator often contributing to debates on national issues. He is a member of the major opposition People's Democratic Party, PDP in the Nigerian senate. He is currently the Minority leader in the senate.[2][3][4]

In January 2020, Abaribe during a motion against worsening insecurity in Nigeria, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign[5][6] reminding president Buhari that Nigerians voted him into power in 2015 and renewed his mandate in 2019 to tackle the security situation in the country. Abaribe said Buhari had made a promise while campaigning for the presidency in 2015 that Nigerians should stone him (Buhari)[7] out of government should he fail to improve the security situation in the country. “Nigerians voted a government into power. We are going with stones to stone them now because they have failed", Abaribe's motion in the senate concluded.[8]

Education

Abaribe earned his WASSCE from Government College Umuahia in 1974. He went on to the University of Benin, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics in 1979 and a master's degree in economics in 1982.[9] He lectured at Edo State University from 1982 until 1985.[10]

Business career

From 1985 until 1991, he was SCOA Nigeria's area manager for Southern Nigeria. After that, from 1991 to 1992, he was employed as Nicon's senior manager for investment. From 1993 until 1995 he was the CEO of Integrated Mortgage Co.[10]

Political career

Deputy governorship and gubernatorial run

Abaribe became Abia State's Deputy Governor after Orji Uzor Kalu's 1999 election to the Governorship.[11] The state's House of Assembly impeached the deputy governor twice in 2000[12] and a third time in 2003; as he was facing his third impeachment, he resigned on March 7, 2003, sending his resignation via DHL so as to have written record of it.[13] The House of Assembly formally voted him out of office several days later, in a move Abaribe called "medicine after death".[14] He was succeeded as deputy governor by Eric Acho Nwakanma. Abaribe ran for the governorship on the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) platform in 2003, but lost to Kalu.

Senatorial career

Abaribe was elected to the national Senate in 2007 on a People's Democratic Party (PDP) ticket;[10] Eric Acho Nwakanma of the PPA challenged the validity of the election.[15]

Abaribe is Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Affairs (Senator Abdulaziz Usman of Jigawa-North East is chairman).[16] He is also a member of the Committees on the Independent National Electoral Commission, Senate Services, and Works.[10] In October 2007, as Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of the banned secessionist organization Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), was on trial for treason, Abaribe and six other southeastern senators protested at the Federal High Court in Lagos to demand his release.[17]

Abaribe was reelected for Abia South in the April 2011 election.[18] He is currently the chairman Senate Committee on Media and Publicity.

Abaribe was re-elected to the Nigerian 8th senate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015 and is currently representing the people of Abia South Senatorial District in the upper chamber. On the 13 June 2019 he was appointed as the Minority leader of the Senate.[19]

He was re-elected in 2023 Election in an election victory over other candidates with a 49,693 vote poll to win Abia South senatorial district.[20]

He was named the chairman of the Senate committee on power of the 10th senate on 8 August 2023.[21]

Arrest and release

On June 22, 2018, Abaribe was arrested by the Department of State Security Services (DSS) at his barber shop located at Transcorp Hilton Hotel,[22] Abuja for his alleged links with the Indigenous People of Biafra being one of the sureties to their leader Nnamdi Kanu, he was taken to his house for a search and was later taken to the DSS detention in Abuja.[23] He was released the next Tuesday,26 June 2018 on bail.[24]

References

  1. ↑ "Sen. Abaribe Enyinnaya Harcourt". National Assembly of Nigeria. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  2. ↑ "Abaribe emerges Senate Minority Leader". Punch Newspapers. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  3. ↑ Inyang, Ifreke (13 June 2019). "9th National Assembly: Abaribe emerges Senate Minority Leader". Daily Post Nigeria. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  4. ↑ "Ekweremadu congratulates Abaribe, other minority leaders". Punch Newspapers. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  5. ↑ "See di three tins Senate wan do afta Sen. Abaribe ask President Buhari to resign". BBC News Pidgin. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  6. ↑ "Senator Abaribe Asks President Buhari To Resign Over Security Challenges". Channels Television. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  7. ↑ "TRENDING: #BuhariResign trends after senator asked president to step down". 30 January 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  8. ↑ "Uproar in Senate as Abaribe calls for Buhari's resignation". Punch Newspapers. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  9. ↑ "Enyinnaya Abaribe: The Smart One". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 1 March 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Senator Enyinnaya Harkcourt Abaribe(NMA AGHA NDI IGBO)". National Assembly of Nigeria. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
  11. ↑ "Abaribe, Ekweremadu... A tale of two revisionists". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 2 January 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  12. ↑ Epia, Oke (5 September 2004). "Abia: Kalu Vs the Ngwa Rage". This Day Online. Leader & Company. Archived from the original on 16 January 2005. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
  13. ↑ Abaribe, Enyinnaya; interviewed by Chuks Okocha (20 March 2003). "'Why I Sent My Resignation Letter By Courier'". This Day Online. Leaders & Company. Archived from the original on 24 June 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
  14. ↑ Mu’asu, Auwalu S. (19 March 2003). "My impeachment was an after thought –Abaribe". Daily Trust (BiafraNigeriaWorld). Retrieved 29 January 2008.
  15. ↑ Owete, Festus (13 October 2007). "Abaribe Petitions NJC Over Abia Chief Judge". Daily Independent Online. Independent Newspapers. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
  16. ↑ "Senate Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Affairs". National Assembly of Nigeria. Archived from the original on 6 January 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
  17. ↑ Ige, Ise-Oluwa (3 October 2007). "S-East Senators storm court, demand Uwazuruike's release". Vanguard Online. Vanguard Media. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
  18. ↑ Orji Uzor Kalu (10 April 2011). "Orji Kalu Fails; Abaribe, Chukwumerije, Nwaogu Reelected Senators". Online Nigeria. Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  19. ↑ "Abaribe emerges Senate Minority Leader - Punch Newspapers".
  20. ↑ "Abaribe defeats ikpeazu by wide margin to return as Abia South Senator". The Cable. 24 November 2023. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  21. ↑ "Lawan, Yari, Tambuwal, Oshiomhole, Sani Musa, Others Emerge Senate Committee Chairmen - THISDAYLIVE". www.thisdaylive.com. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  22. ↑ "AMP | ThisDayLive".
  23. ↑ "DSS releases Abaribe after 5 days incarceration - Vanguard News".
  24. ↑ How SSS arrested, detained me for days – Abaribe
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