By Wilfred Eya
Yesterday, the country was thrown into mourning, as the news of the death of former governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife filtered in. The Igbo nation particularly, is in grief as it has lost a major voice in the late statesman. Indeed, for those who followed the activities of the Havard-trained economist, an Iroko has fallen among Ndigbo and Nigeria as a whole.
Ezeife died at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, on Thursday, according to a statement on Friday by Rob Ezeife, on behalf of the family.
In a terse message, he had said: “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 an president and former presidential aspirant.”
As he joined his ancestors on Thursday, those who know him agree that he died without realising his dream of seeing an egalitarian nation where Nigerians would be treated equal irrespective of tribe or religion. He was one of the foremost advocates of true federalism in the country.
Many agree that in Nigeria’s 63 years of independence, the country has produced a number of respected statesmen and certainly, among them is Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Third Republic Governor of Anambra State.
His success story is one of the most fascinating ever told about a statesman. He rose from an apprentice trader to a PhD holder from one of the world’s best universities.
Born in Igbo-Ukwu, Anambra State on November 20, 1939, Ezeife’s fame rests on sheer determination to succeed even where others have failed. He did not attend conventional secondary schools, but taught himself through correspondence courses, and qualified for university admission. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University College, Ibadan before he proceeded to the Harvard University on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship. He obtained a Masters degree and then, a PhD in 1972.
Ezeife was a renowned school teacher who later became a Headmaster and subsequently, a lecturer at Makarare University College, Kampala in Uganda.
He became a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, and a Consultant with Arthur D. Little in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He joined the federal civil service as an Administrative Officer and rose to the position of Permanent Secretary. Ezeife was notable for his eloquence, courage and candour. At all times, he spoke truth to power.
He became governor of Anambra at the most critical time in the history of the state; he assumed office on January 2, 1992, on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), barely four months after the creation of the state on August 27, 1991. He had the enormous responsibility of laying the foundation for the development of the young state with an old name.
To give the state a lift, he launched the ‘Think Home Initiative’ that encouraged wealthy sons and daughters of Anambra origin to invest in the state. That initiative became a success because it marked the beginning of the transformation of Awka, the state capital, from the quiet town it was in 1991 to the capital city it is today.
Ezeife’s administration was short-lived following the military intervention of November 17, 1993, that aborted the Third Republic. But in the brief period in office, he attracted federal presence to the state. He transferred ownership of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University and the Federal Polytechnic, Oko to the Federal Government. In the Fourth Republic, Ezeife, who described himself as a social democrat, was appointed Presidential Adviser on Political Matters to President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Since leaving public office, Ezeife remained active in the defence of democracy and good governance in Nigeria. In January 2010, he was among thousands of people who demonstrated in Awka to demand credible and violence-free governorship elections on February 6 of that year. In November 2021, he played a crucial role alongside other elders of the state, religious leaders, and traditional rulers to get the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) to call off a sit-at-home protest scheduled for November 6, 2021, the day of the Anambra State governorship election. Through his intervention, Anambra State held a peaceful governorship election against all odds in that year.
Ezeife was appointed a member of the board of the Centre for Development & Empowerment of Commercial Motorcyclists. 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.
For his contributions to the socio-political development of the country, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife won The Sun Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022.