An ex-Anambra State Governor, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, popularly known as ‘Okwadike’ has departed for eternal home, the family proclaimed.
Aged 86, Mr Ezeife died at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, on Thursday, according to a statement on Friday by Rob Ezeife, on behalf of the family.
“On behalf of the Ezeife Dynasty of Igbo-Ukwu, I wish to announce the promotion to glory of our most distinguished son, ‘Okwadike’, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, CON, a former federal permanent secretary, a former governor of Anambra State, a former political adviser to the (an ex-) president and former presidential aspirant,” the statement said.
The statement said details of his burial arrangements will be announced in due course.
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Born on 20 November 1938, Mr Ezeife was elected governor of Anambra State on the platform of the Social Democratic Party during Nigeria’s Third Republic.
This was as Chiwoke Mbadinuju who governed Anambra from 1999 to 2003 on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was buried in November 2023.
Ezeife’s background
Mr Ezeife hailed from Igbo-Ukwu, a community in Aguata Local Government Area of the South-eastern state.
The 85-year-old served as governor of Anambra from January 1992 to November 1993 during the Nigerian Third Republic when former Nigerian military ruler, Sani Abacha, seized power at the centre.
In 1999, he was appointed a special adviser on political matters by ex-Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, at the beginning of the country’s Fourth Republic.
Though he did not attend secondary school, Ezeife taught himself through correspondence courses, qualifying for university admission.
He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Ibadan and his Master’s Degree and Doctorate from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the United States of America in 1972.
He was a school headmaster and later a lecturer at Makarare University College, Kampala, Uganda.
