A former governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, is dead.

The elder statesman died at 6 pm on Thursday at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, according to a statement by the family signed by Chief Rob Nwakaire Ezeife.

The statement added that more details about the deceased and the arrangements for his State Burial will be announced later.

“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, the first Executive Governor of Anambra State, a former Political Adviser to the President and former Presidential Aspirant.

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

Ezeife was governor of Anambra from 1992 to 1993.

Born at Igbo-Ukwu, Anambra State on 20 November 1937, Ezeife obtained a BSc in Economics from the University College Ibadan.

He later attended Harvard University on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship where he obtained a master’s and then PhD degree in 1972.

He worked as 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.

Political Career

Ezeife got elected as governor of Anambra State on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) platform in December 1991. He was in office from January 2, 1992 to November 17, 1993, when General Sani Abacha took power after a military coup.

Ezeife was credited to transferring Nnamdi Azikiwe University and Federal Polytechnic, Oko to the federal government as governor.

He was later appointed presidential Adviser on Political Matters to President Olusegun Obasanjo at the turn of the Fourth Republic.