Former presidential candidate, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu has mourned the death of First Republic Minister of Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amechi.
A statement from the family signed by Ezeana Tagbo said Chief Amechi died in the early hours of Tuesday, November 1.
He was 93.
“With total deference to the will of the Almighty God, the Ume Amechi, Ezeana Ihinede families and the Umu Mmara kindred of Amihe Ukpor in the Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State announce the peaceful transition of our illustrious son, father and grandfather, Chief Mbazulike Amechi (Dara Akunwafor), Nationalist and First Republic Minister of Aviation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who transitioned peacefully in the early hours of today November 1, 2022.
“We thank God for the fulfilled life that he lived, the lives that he touched and his service to God and Country. We respectfully ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers at this time,” the statement read.
In a statement on Wednesday, Moghalu expressed sadness at the demise of the elder statesman.
“I am saddened to learn of the death yesterday, at 93, of Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, frontline politician in Nigeria’s First Republic and our country’s first Minister of Aviation. Popularly known as “The Boy is Good” (as former President Nnamdi Azikiwe described him after Amaechi foiled an assassination attempt on the Great Zik earlier in the latter’s political career), Amaechi was a frontline nationalist who hosted the Nelson Mandela in his home in Lagos in the 1960s when Mandela was on exile as a political dissident in South Africa in the 1960s.
“I was privileged to have visited Amaechi in his country home in Ukpor in Nnewi South LGA in April 2019, and to have soaked in these and other stories of our national history, including an intimate first hand account as a member of a group of five close associates who, along with the Great Zik, received Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s delegation to Zik to persuade the latter to form a coalition of Zik’s National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) political party and Awo’s Action Group (AG) party to form the national Government after the 1959 elections, and why Zik ultimately declined Awo’s proposal and instead entered a coalition with the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to form Nigeria’s post-independence government with Tafawa Balewa of NPC as Prime Minister and Head of Government and Zik as President and Head of State.
“In Mbazulike Amaechi, the last of the Titans of Nigeria’s nationalist struggle for independence has departed. May his brave soul Rest In Peace,” Moghalu said.
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