By Chukwudi Nweje, Lagos
The President of the Cultural Credibility and Development Initiative (CCDI), a non governmental organisation (NGO), Chief Goddy Uwazurike, has described the death of former governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife as a loss of inestimable value.
Ezeife passed on at the Federal Medical Center in Abuja at about 6pm on Thursday, according to family sources. He was aged 85.
“Indeed we have lost a great man, the cerebral scholar, the motivator. The first Governor of the current Anambra State, the Political Adviser to the President, the public leader and charisma personified,” Uwazurike noted.
He said the death of Ezeife on the eve of the Supreme Court Judgment on the case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is painful as the former Anambra State governor would not be alive to see the conclusion of a struggle he initiated.
He further said, “On Friday, November 19, 2021 at 10 am, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Bishop Sunday Onuoha and myself, Chief Goddy Uwazurike met the then President of Nigeria General Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock to persuade him to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to us unconditionally. He said he will not say no to us but he will give us an answer later. In November 2022, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi died without hearing from Buhari. Some hours ago, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife died on the eve of the Supreme Court Judgment on the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu case. Ndigbo have lost great men and women of inestimable value in rapid succession – Chief Guy Ikokwu, Prof George Obiozor, Prof Joe Irukwu, SAN, Prof Ben Nwabueze, SAN, and Chief George Uwachue, SAN – but we are reassured that the great ones did not walk alone. The great ones left solid footprints in the sand of time for us to follow. We shall keep the flag flying.”