First Executive Governor of Anambra State Passes On

By Tochukwu Ifejika, Awka

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The first Executive Governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife has passed on at 85.

 

This was disclosed in a statement signed by Chief Rob Nwakaire Ezeife, on behalf of the Ezeife Family, in which he noted that the Igboukwu-born elder statesman passed on at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, on Thursday evening.

 

“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.  The first Executive Governor of Anambra State.

 

Ezeife was born at Igbo-Ukwu, Anambra State on 20 November 1937. He did not attend secondary school, but taught himself through correspondence courses, qualifying for university admission. He gained a BSc in Economics from the University College Ibadan, then attended Harvard University on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship where he obtain a masters and then PhD degree in 1972. He became a School Headmaster, a lecturer at Makarare University College, Kampala, Uganda, a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, and a Consultant with Arthur D. Little in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ezeife joined the civil service as an Administrative Officer and rose to the position of Permanent Secretary.

A former Political Adviser to the President and former Presidential Aspirant.

 

“This sad event took place yesterday at 6pm at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja. More details about the deceased and the arrangements for his State Burial will be announced later,” the statement read.

Ezeife’s death is coming barely twenty months after his wife passed on, and barely eight months after another former governor of the State, Chief Chinwoke Mbadinuju also joined his ancestors.

 

Dr. Ezeife popularly known as Okwadike Igboukwu, was elected Governor of Anambra State from January 1992 to November 1993 during the Nigerian Third Republic.

Dominica Nwabufo

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