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BY OMONIYI IBIETAN
Emeka Anyaoku was the third Secretary General of The Commonwealth of Nations. The very first Nigerian, African, and Black man to occupy that position.
Educated at the University of Ibadan where he studied Classics as a college scholar; and at the University of London, Sir Emeka Anyaoku’s service to man and country is one of the reasons Nigeria, despite its challenges, has continued to earn respect in the global arena.
Anyaoku’s voice and works were decisive, unequivocal and forthright on matters of human rights, as well as on the imperative of freedom, and of enthronement of popular, participatory and representative democracy, particularly in Africa.
As Nigeria’s alternative representative at the United Nations and particularly in the United Nations special committee on Apartheid, Anyaoku drafted the resolution presented to the General Assembly by Nigeria in 1965 “that established a trust fund to enable governments to contribute to the defence of political detainees in South Africa”.
Officially and personally, Chief Anyaoku decidedly dedicated both voice and focus to the dismantling of Apartheid in South Africa; and to decolonising the vestiges of colonialism in Southern African subcontinent. And he was as consistent in the search for the expansion of the frontiers of democracy and freedom around the world.
If Amartya Sen’s DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM was a manifesto, I mean, an agenda for human development, then, it is the likes of Chief Emeka Anyaoku that gave the treatise a concrete expression.
His life has been a source of inspiration and pride to me, and I so love him.
Happy 89th birthday sir. May God continue to keep you in great health. I wish you many more joyous celebrations sir.
•Source: Facebook