The first Executive Governor of the new Anambra, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife is dead.
Former Governor Ezeife died Thursday evening around 6.pm at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja.
A press statement released by the Ezeife Dynasty of Igboukwu in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State and signed by his brother, Chief Rob Ezeife, reads: “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 6pm at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja. More details about the deceased and the arrangements for his State Burial will be announced later.”
Dr Ezeife, aged 85, was elected on the platform of the Social Democratic Party as the first Executive Governor of the modern Anambra in 1992.
He held sway at the Anambra State Government House from January 1992 till November 1993 in the botched Third Republic.
Remarkably, Dr Ezeife did not attend secondary school, but taught himself through correspondence courses, qualifying for university admission.
Ezeife obtained a BSc in Economics from the University College Ibadan and then attended Harvard University on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship where he obtained a Masters and then PhD degree in 1972.
He joined the civil service as an Administrative Officer and rose to the position of Permanent Secretary.
He was a school headmaster, and later a lecturer at Makarare University College in Kampala, Uganda.
He was also a teaching fellow at Harvard University, and a Consultant with Arthur D. Little in Cambridge, Massachusetts.