Emeka Anyaoku

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Eleazar Chukwuemeka Anyaoku (born January 18, 1933 in Obosi , Anambra ) was the third Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations . He is Nigerians with Igbo -Abstammung. He has received the Nigerian National Honors and the Royal Victorian Order .

education

Emeka Anyaoku graduated from the University of Ibadan with a degree in Classical Philology . He completed further studies at the University of London in 1959 with distinction as a classical philologist .

Career as a politician

In 1959 Emeka Anyaoku joined the Commonwealth Development Cooperation. In the course of Nigeria's independence from Great Britain , he joined the diplomatic service and in 1963 became Nigeria's permanent ambassador to the United Nations in New York .

From 1966 he worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat as 'Deputy Director for International Affairs'. From 1968 to 1969 there were efforts by the Nigerian military government to recall Anyaoku because there were allegedly doubts about his loyalty. But by then Emeka Anyaoku had already resigned from the Nigerian diplomatic service and so this request was not granted.

In 1977 he was elected Executive Secretary General of the Commonwealth. In 1983 Emeka Anyaoku was appointed Foreign Minister to the civil government of Nigeria. After the government was overthrown by the military later this year, he returned to his post as Executive Secretary-General of the Commonwealth with the support of the new Nigerian government and that of all other Commonwealth governments.

At the Commonwealth Summit in Kuala Lumpur in 1989, Anyaoku was elected third Secretary General of the Commonwealth. He was re-elected for a second five-year term from 1995 at the 1993 Commonwealth Summit in Limassol . His successor in this office was Donald McKinnon .

Emeka Anyaoku has spanned 30 years of Commonwealth initiatives and negotiations. He was in the Gibraltar Referendum in 1967, the Nigerian Civil War 1967–70, the Constitutional Crisis of St. Kitts and Nevis , Anguilla 1969–70, the problems surrounding the boycott of the Commonwealth Games during the 1980s, and the process that led to it should lead to peace and democracy in Zimbabwe , Namibia , partly also in South Africa , actively involved. He was also closely associated with the establishment of a representative office at the United Nations for small Commonwealth countries. In the spring of 1997 he organized the first African Commonwealth Summit as a round table to support democratic developments and good governance on the African continent .

Ichie Adazie from Obosi

In addition to his international career, Chief Anyaoku fulfilled his duties as 'Ichie Adazie' from Obosi, a traditional 'Ndichie' chief dignity. In 1991 the heads of all 19 communities of the 'Idemili Clan' in his state of Anambra Anyaoku awarded the honorary title 'Ugwumba Idemili'. His wife Bunmi also has the title of chief - Ugoma Obosi and Idemili - on the basis of her own right, which is based on a long commitment to charity work in Nigeria and in Commonwealth organizations.

Life

Emeka Anyaoku has been married to Bunmi Anyaoku since 1962. Bunmi Anyaoku belongs to the Abeokuta royal family in Nigeria. The four children of the two are the daughter Adiba and the three sons Oluyemisi, Obiechina, and Emenike. Emeka has two grandchildren, Adiba's children, Irenne Ighodaro and Osita Ighodaro.

Emeka Anyaoku is a devout Anglican. His father had already converted to the denomination of the Anglican Church .

In October 2003 Anyaoku was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Open University in Great Britain. Chief Anyaoku was also a board member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and the World Commission on Forests and Substainable Development . He was President of the Royal Commonwealth Society , the Royal African Society , and Curator of the British Museum .

For eight years, from 2002 to 2009, Chief Emeka Anyaoku was President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF International).

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personal data
SURNAME Anyaoku, Emeka
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anyaoku, Eleazar Chukwuemeka
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian diplomat and Foreign Minister, Ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary General of the Commonwealth, President of WWF
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Obosi , Anambra