14 December 2023(2023-12-14) (aged 86) Abuja, Nigeria
Chukwuemeka Ezeife (20 November 1937 – 14 December 2023) was a Nigerian politician who served as the governor of Anambra State in Nigeria from January 1992 to November 1993 during the Nigerian Third Republic.[1]
Background
Ezeife was born in 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 earned a BSc in Economics from the University College Ibadan, and later attended Harvard University on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship, where he obtained a master's degree and then a PhD in 1972.[2]
Ezeife's career included roles as a School Headmaster, a lecturer at Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda, a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, and a Consultant with Arthur D. Little in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He joined the civil service as an Administrative Officer and rose to the position of Permanent Secretary.[3]
Political career
Ezeife was elected governor of Anambra State on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) platform, holding office from 2 January 1992 to 17 November 1993, when General Sani Abacha took power after a military coup. As governor, he was said to be more interested in planning than in addressing immediate developmental needs and achieved few tangible results.[4] He transferred Nnamdi Azikiwe University and Federal Polytechnic, Oko to the federal government, which helped ensure their survival during the ensuing military regime.[5]
During the Nigerian Fourth Republic, Ezeife, who described himself as a social democrat, was appointed presidential Adviser on Political Matters to President Olusegun Obasanjo.[2]
Later career
Ezeife was appointed a member of the board of the Centre for Development & Empowerment of Commercial Motorcyclists.[3] In February 2006, the Federal Capital Development Authority bulldozed his house in Abuja on the grounds that the plot of land and those of adjacent houses had been acquired improperly.[6] In January 2010, he was among thousands who demonstrated in Awka, calling for credible and violence-free governorship elections on 6 February.[7] In April 2010, one of Ezeife's wives, Onyedi, was kidnapped by hoodlums who had earlier killed four policemen. The kidnappers demanded a high ransom.[8]
Death
Chukwuemeka Ezeife died on 14 December 2023, at the age of 86.[9]
