Before going to the Senate, Senator Ude had a career in the Nigerian Public Service spanning 42 years and rising through the ranks to the top of his chosen career. He is a veteran journalist, broadcaster and a disciplined technocrat and administrator with vast experience and solid track record in Public Service, especially in media matters. He entered the public service of former Eastern Nigeria as a clerk in 1960 and later joined the Eastern Nigeria Information Service, printers and publishers of ‘Nigerian Outlook’ in May 1965 as a reporter. At the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, he trained as a journalist and broadcaster in Nigeria and overseas. He later worked in East Central State Broadcasting Service, Nigerian Television Authority, Imo Broadcasting Service and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria. Senator Ude was the first General Manager of Radio Nigeria, Owerri ; first Director-General of Imo Broadcasting Corporation ; first Director-General of Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State ; first Chief Executive of Ebonyi Broadcasting Service; and first Honourable Commissioner for Commerce, Industry & Tourism, Ebonyi State. Ude was for 161/2 years the Chief Executive of several Broadcasting Establishments thus remaining the longest serving Chief Executive in Nigeria’s volatile Broadcasting Industry.
Other appointments
Between 1984 and 2003, he held several special appointments. They include Director, Golden Guinea Breweries, Umuahia ; Member, Special Advisory Committee to the Federal Government on Electronic Media Operations ; Member, Central Working Committee of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, BON ; Chairman, Zone ‘E’ of BON comprising the Eastern States; and Chairman, Governing Council of the Federal College of Education, Umunze in Anambra State. A former President-General of Old Afikpo Union comprising today’s Ebonyi South Senatorial Zone, he is also an ordained Ruling Elder of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria. He was the Chairman of the Presbyterian Joint Hospital, Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State from 1994 to 2000. He is also a Member, Advisory Council to the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria. He was decorated a Member of the Order of the Niger by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000 and was one of the six delegates selected to represent Ebonyi State at the 2005 National Political Reform Conference.
Senate career
After taking his seat in the Senate in June 2007, Ude was appointed the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation and serves in four other Senate Committees: Defence & Army, Land Transport, Capital Markets and Culture & Tourism. As Chairman of the Aviation Committee, he was at the centre of the successful effort to upgrade the Akanu Ibiam Airport, Enugu to the status of an international airport. He also played a major role in the eventual payment of pensions and gratuities to workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways just as he is doing in the payment of compensation to the families of the 2005/2006 air-crash victims. The Committee also investigated the disbursement and utilization of the Aviation Intervention Fund. He sponsored the Social Security Bill in the Senate. He also introduced a number of motions on the Floor of the Senate. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, in April 2010, Ude raised concern about security lapses at the nation's airports after an incident in Calabar where a motorist rammed into an airplane that was preparing to take off.
